The REDD+ regime has to enhance the carbon and other ecosystem services, it should strengthen the efforts of biodiversity conservation, and help secure the livelihoods of the ecosystem dependent local communities in India.

The omnipresent existence of human-nature relationship all over India has been grossly neglected as a tool for conservation management. The sacred groves, patches of forests conserved due to associated religious faith have been described by foresters, travelers, anthropologists, ecologists for more than two hundred years from different parts of the country. The sacred grove institution in the Western Ghats of India which has been nurtured by the local communities has been serving as ecological refugia for a range of species and habitat of the Western Ghats.