Well-performing community-based forestry has the potential to rapidly restore forests in ecological terms and scale up sustainable forest management to the national level, while improving local livelihoods of billions of the most marginalized people around the world.

Even as India has managed to increase its forest cover to over 20 per cent of its total geographical area, forest fires are a leading cause of degradation of the forest cover in the country says this new report released by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change

Despite the substantial forest area held, claimed, and managed by Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and rural women, the vast majority of the world’s forests formally remain under government administration as national or provincial forests, protected areas, or forests allocated to third parties under concessions.

The protection and revival of degraded and deforested land is the need of the hour. In order to tackle the issues that arise as a consequence of degradation and deforestation, principles of forest landscape restoration are being globally promoted.

India is a front-runner in developing policies to engage forest dependent communities in the management of their forest lands.

Adivasis who seek their constitutional rights are being criminalised by the state, and the Forest Rights Act, 2006 is being rampantly violated, said several adivasi community groups that deposed before the Independent People’s Tribunal on the Status of Implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 (FRA) in New Delhi on 15 December, 2016.

Question raised in Lok Sabha on Afforestation in Hilly Areas, 19/07/2016. The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF & CC) is implementing a centrally sponsored “National Afforestation Programme (NAP)” scheme for regeneration and restocking of degraded forests in the country. The scheme is implemented in participatory mode under the Joint Forest Management by State Forest Development Agency (SFDA) at the State level, Forest Development Agency (FDA) at the forest division/district level and Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC) at the village level.

Question raised in Rajya Sabha on Goals of NAP and GIM, 18/07/2016. The two major Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSSs), of this Ministry namely National Afforestation Programme (NAP) Scheme and the Green India Mission (GIM) are being implemented in participatory mode under Joint Forest Management (JFM) approach. The objective of the National Afforestation Programme scheme is regeneration of degraded forests by institutionalizing decentralized forest management. Under NAP, an area of over 2.1 million hectares has been sanctioned for afforestation with an investment of about Rs.

The National Mission for a Green India proposal, released under the aegis of the National Action Plan on Climate Change, is a significant attempt to integrate the mechanism of ecosystem services in the overall framework of forest conservation in India. It suggests a series of strategies for improving the quality of forests and proposes reforms for strengthening joint forest management. This paper discusses the likely impact of these reforms on current forest use practice. It does so by analysing the various provisions of the mission and how they support or contradict ongoing forest uses.

Question raised in Lok Sabha on community forest management, 28/07/2015. The local communities are involved in the forest management through the Joint Forest Management (JFM) wherein the State forest department and the local communities enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly manage the forest area. The Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change is implementing the National Afforestation Programme (NAP) Scheme for the eco-restoration of degraded forests and adjoining areas through people’s participation throughout the country.

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