The increasing degree and extent of land degradation processes due to mismanagement and land use changes are threatening our soils. Urgent action is needed to reverse this trend if the nation is to ensure the necessary food production for future generations, mitigation of climate change, provision of clean groundwater, and reduction of biodiversity loss.
The Forest Research Institute director Arun Singh Rawat said this after inaugurating a seminar on forest landscape restroration organised by the institute’s Forest Ecology and Climate Change division here on Wednesday.
Addressing the gathering, Rawat said that Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) is the ongoing process of regaining ecological functionality and enhancing human well-being across deforested or degraded forest landscapes. FLR is more than just planting trees – it is restoring a whole landscape to meet present and future needs and to offer multiple benefits and land uses over time. He highlighted that potential productivity of world's cropland is deteriorating fast due to weakening soil quality.
About 33 per cent of global soils are already degraded. Of India’s total geographical area of 329 million hectare (mha), 265 mha is under use for agriculture, forestry, pasture and other biomass production.
India supports approximately 17 per cent of the world’s human population and 20% of the world’s livestock population on merely 2.5% of the world’s geographical area. The steady growth of human as well as livestock population, the widespread incidence of poverty, and the current phase of economic and trade liberalisation, is exerting heavy pressures on India’s limited land resources for competing uses in forestry, agriculture, pastures, human settlements and industries. This has led to very significant land degradation. He said that land degradation is increasingly becoming a major concern in India which is reflected in the commitment to achieve land degradation neutral status by 2030 as a signatory to the UNCCD. The FRI in tandem with its sister institutes under Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) is addressing this issue by developing suitable models of restoration for various degraded lands—for example, coal mine overburden dumps, limestone mines, salt affected soils, degraded hills, waterlogged areas and desert sand dunes. The head of Forest Ecology and Climate Change Division, N Bala presented a brief account of significant past achievements and current activities of the division. Scientist HB Vashishtha highlighted the need and opportunities for forest landscape restoration especially in the Indian context. Colonel HRS Rana shared experiences of Eco-Task Force on forest landscape restoration and the way forward.
RS Rawat focused on government programmes, initiatives and significance of Bonn Challenge while Suresh Kumar elaborated the GIS and remote sensing technology in forest landscape restoration. GP Juyal talked about role of soil moisture conservation practices in forest landscape restoration during seminar.
Former divisional heads SC Sharma, Nirmal Ram, representatives of research organisations and other participants shared their experience and made suggestions for future roadmap.
Apart from FRI scientists, participants included scientists and officers from ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, State Forest Department, students/ research scholars, Eco-Task Force, universities and non governmental organisations.