By Prof Govind Singh Rajwar
International Day of Forests, 21 March, was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests. For celebration of this day, countries of the world are encouraged to organise activities involving forests, such as tree planting campaigns at local, national and international levels. In 2024, the International Day of Forests 2024 will be celebrated on the theme, ‘Forests and Innovation‘. The theme for each International Day of Forests is chosen by the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF). On each International Day of Forests, countries are encouraged to undertake local, national, and international efforts to organise activities involving forests and trees, such as tree planting programmes. The UN Forum on Forests (UNFF) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) organise the day in collaboration with governments of various countries and other organisations working on the conservation of forests.
Forests cover nearly a third of the Earth’s land surface, equivalent to the combined areas of Brazil, Canada, China, and the United States. Four billion hectares of forests are not just green patches on this planet, but they constitute a vital component of almost every aspect of life on our planet. Forests are the ecosystems with rich biodiversity and serve as habitat or home to 60,000 different tree species, 80 percent of amphibian species, 75 percent of bird species, and 68 percent of the world’s mammal species. In addition, they provide a number of ecosystem services, such as regulating global rainfall patterns, safeguarding water resources, and preventing soil erosion and floods. Forests are crucial in providing livelihood for nearly one billion indigenous people and natives in addition to providing habitats for most of the planet’s species. Forests also act as catalysers of economic, ecological, and sociocultural well-being for many communities around the world including Himalaya and other parts of India and they also play a significant role in mitigating climate change by acting as carbon sinks by absorbing billions of metric tonnes of CO2 annually. Therefore, forests provide a substantial capacity to remove greenhouse gases (GHG) from the atmosphere and help us prevent the adverse impacts of the climate change phenomenon. According to findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) sectors can provide up to 30 percent of the GHG emissions reduction required to limit global warming to 2°C, at a relatively low cost. They also limit and control the spread of zoonotic infectious diseases by acting as buffers between humans and wildlife. The financial support for forest-based climate solutions is presently insufficient for making the forest management a difficult task. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) supports countries on promoting sustainable forest management by arranging innovative finance mechanisms for conservation and climate change mitigation.
The forests are under threat due to deforestation and degradation. Sustainable management of forests requires a holistic approach. The very urgent need is to eliminate emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and, thus, facilitate forest regrowth and landscape restoration. One of the major challenges for the forest conservation is the global demand for commodities such as soy, palm oil, and timber cause deforestation and their production many be responsible of illegal logging and deforestation, as products from deforested areas can be mixed with those from legal sources. The second important challenge is insufficient finance, which at domestic and international levels is very low averaging less than one percent of the necessary total required cost. As per 2022 Forest Declaration Assessment, even a single indicator is not on path to meet the 2030 goals of stopping forest degradation and other kinds of forest loss and even the Indigenous Peoples (IPs) and local communities (LCs), who are integral to sustainable forest management, still receive far less funding than they need for securing land tenure rights and preserving forest ecosystems. The third important challenge is the land tenure and rights. Disputes over land ownership, lack of recognition of indigenous and local community rights, and conflicting land use regulations result in forest clearance. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is leading in global efforts to mitigate deforestation and its devastating consequences. Understanding the interconnection between forest degradation and climate change, UNDP supports countries in designing and implementing national policies and measures aimed at reducing deforestation and promoting sustainable forest management. There are some examples such as support of countries by UNDP including plantations in Ghana, applying environmental excellence standards in nine states of Brazil and the civil society organisations, developing National Forest Monitoring System in Kenya, supporting partnership with the government and private sector in Ecuador, and other programmes in Costa Rica and Indonesia. UNDP also promotes social equity and environmental integrity to ensure forest solutions to climate change.
The theme of this year’s celebration of the International Day of Forests is Forests and Innovation: New Solutions for a Better World. About 10 million hectare forests are lost due to deforestation and about 70 million hectare forests are affected by fires annually. The innovations for forest protection and management are essential such as early warning systems, sustainable commodity production, and Indigenous Peoples through land mapping and climate finance access, especially in the context of the Himalaya and India. The innovations are required in forest innovation as we understand the importance of forests.
Forest innovations include: 1) Organising a farm-to-table dinner with your loved ones and farmers, where a dinner or meal may be organised using freshly prepared farm-to-table dishes. You can use locally sourced ingredients or collaborate with a local restaurant to source the dishes; 2) Pledging to choose natural fabric as the responsive fashion; 3) Green innovation by planting using various species of plants to revegetate and reclaim degraded forest lands owing to the importance of forests which are commonly known as lungs of our planet, 4) Satellite technology for forest monitoring for special monitoring of agricultural and forest resources and using satellite imaginary and AI in early forest fire detection, climate change impacts analysis and harvesting; 4) Flooring solutions using hemp as a substitute for flooring, furniture and accent walls as hemp wood is sustainable wood alternative; 5) Nature-backed financial instrument: Venture capital group Single Earth has developed a way for landowners to earn money for the utilisation of their land. The resource owners are rewarded for reserving ecosystems; 6) Carbon-packing made from cork: Scottish craft brewer Brew-Dog started a carbon-negative step where this company purchased grazing land to restore the area to native forest; 7) Using charcoal balls for reforestation: Each seedball containing tree seed surrounded by nutrients and coated in a charcoal shell is used for reforestation as an easy and affordable technique.
The International Day of Forests is celebrated by India and other countries of the world by starting a victory garden, by hiking in the forests or a state park, by scrapbooking and recording interesting facts to teach children about different trees and their importance or by doing some innovative work or study on the forest for their protection and conservation.
(The author is Visiting Professor, Himalayiya University, Dehradun; Asia Representative, International Society of Ethnobiology; Fellow, Linnean Society of London and Former Professor of Botany & Principal, Higher Education, Uttarakhand)
