PPP: Reimagining national resource management
The common prevalent notion is that the Government has no business being in business. Is it time to move beyond and take a leap from PPP 1.0 to PPP 2.0, with Public being replaced with People as far as the management of national resources is concerned?
Nature-based Solutions (NBS) can be, and must be, taken forward with People at the forefront, as they are the most vulnerable and victims of climate change and resultant warming; and they must be placed at the front as leading partners. This will help in bringing all the stakeholders-Public, People or Private Entity-on the same footing and on the same page, as all of them will carry equal weightage, which will help in creating an inclusive and equitable societal order without any frills.
A case in point is the Forest Conservation Amendment Act, 2023, allowing industries to take up plantations on forest land, particularly degraded forest lands, aimed at enhancing green cover in the country. This is in line with the National Forest Policy 1988 goal of bringing one-third of the land area under forest or tree cover from the current level of approximately one-fourth.
In the mountainous Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh, two Ayurvedic manufacturers, using bio-resource material for the production of plant-based formulations, have come forward to collaborate and work closely with people residing in rural areas to cultivate medicinal and herbal species. One of these, a leading company, shall provide free-of-cost plants to people for raising on their private lands or to farmers for growing on farmland as per feasibility assessments. Dabur India Limited has signed an MoA to supply 1.2 million plants every year without any charge to local people, and this free distribution shall continue for the next 10 years. The company has agreed to create awareness, impart technical know-how to the people, in addition to having a buy-back arrangement with the growers of these medicinal and herbal produce.
The Department of Forest and Ayurveda under the State Government shall have a limited mandate of facilitating and providing a common platform to People and Private entities to coordinate, collaborate and cooperate to take forward the objectives of mutually signed agreements. This will pave the way for the scientific propagation of herbal plants with the twin objectives of enhancing local rural livelihoods and ensuring quality herbal produce for the manufacture and preservation of traditionally harvested forest and conservation areas.
A similar approach has been taken by the State Government in the field of climate change projects in the state, such as India's first state-supported biochar production programme. Under the Biochar Project, forest-based bio-resources will be used to convert them into biochar, which shall help in protecting forests from forest fires and also create avenues for local people's livelihood enhancement. A tripartite Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) in this regard was signed between Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department, and ProClime Services Private Limited, Chennai. The initiative will not only create employment opportunities but also help the State to secure carbon credits. ProClime, through the Forest Department, will engage local communities in sustainable biomass collection, and the participants will be paid per kg of biomass collected, with performance-based incentives for maintaining quality and quantity.
The programme is expected to generate nearly 50,000 person-days of income annually through biomass collection, along with direct employment in plant operations. Skill development programmes will also be organised in partnership with the university on safe collection practices, biochar applications in agriculture, and climate change mitigation. Over its 10-year operational period, the project is expected to generate about 28,800 carbon credits, giving a boost to Himachal Pradesh's green initiatives.
The Afforestation, Reforestation and Re-vegetation (ARR) project is being promoted on land owned by people by roping in private investments. Under ARR, the private company will supply seedlings free of cost to farmers for raising on private lands and, after five years, will be eligible to partake in the carbon credits accumulated on account of these plantations undertaken on farmland. Here, Government departments, particularly the Forest Department, shall play a peripheral role.
As nature-based solutions have a longer gestation period, they require long-term and continuous efforts to make them successful and sustainable.
Now, public servants have to think from the perspective that People, Private Entities and Public Servants are sitting on the same side of the table, and the table is not square or rectangular but round. National resource management has to graduate from joint management to community-led management, which shall ultimately lead to sustainable management.
The writer is Secretary Environment, Science Technology and Climate Change Government of Himachal Pradesh. Views expressed are personal; views are personal
