During the twenty fifth session of Conference of Parties (COP 25) of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) underway at Madrid in Spain, the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) in collaboration with International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development and GIZ hosted a side event on land degradation neutrality and REDD+ readiness in India.
The event apprised the global audience about Government of India’s initiatives for land degradation neutrality, salient features of National REDD+ Strategy and various forestry programmes and projects for achieving climate change mitigation and land degradation neutrality in India by 2030. Chairing the event, the ICFRE director general Suresh Gairola highlighted that policies, laws and regulations related to forests in India are conservation centric and mainly focused on enhancement of forest and tree cover for sustainable flow of ecosystem goods and services for well-being of the communities.
Various programmes and projects are being implemented in the country for sustainable management of forests as well as for meeting the Nationally Determined Contribution Goal, Sustainable Development Goal and Land Degradation Neutrality targets.
India is one of the top ten countries where forest and tree cover are increasing and forests are net sink of carbon dioxide. He stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing a high-level segment meeting of the COP14 had announced to set up a Centre for Excellence in India at the ICFRE and to promote south-south cooperation with friendly countries who may wish to access knowledge, technologies and training of manpower to address the land degradation issues. Further, he highlighted the salient features of National REDD+ Strategy and contribution of ICFRE research in achieving climate change mitigation and land degradation neutrality targets.
Chairperson of TERRE Policy Centre and former UNEP director Rajendra Shende highlighted the women led initiatives in climate change mitigation and climate education being conducted by TERRE Policy Centre in the tribal region of Odisha. He also appreciated the research done by ICFRE for restoration of degraded forest lands and climate change mitigation.
Delegates from various countries participated in the side event and expressed their desire to participate in the centre of excellence being established at ICFRE for addressing issue related to land degradation neutrality.
