By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 27 Dec: The land use based climate mitigation approach of ‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation’ along with conservation of forest carbon stocks, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks collectively known as REDD+ is now widely recognised as one of the climate Change mitigation approaches. ICFRE, in collaboration with International Centre for Integrated Mountain development (ICIMOD) of Nepal, jointly implemented the ‘Trans-boundary REDD-plus Himalayas Project’, which mainly focused on capacity building, technology sharing and knowledge dissemination on REDD-plus. A project dissemination workshop on REDD+ Himalaya was organised at ICFRE, here, today.
SD Sharma, DDG (Research), ICFRE, welcomed the participants and apprised them about the objectives of the workshop. He also highlighted that, although, the project focus was in Mizoram, however the outcome also helped ICFRE develop a national REDD+ strategy, which was finally released by the Government of India. Dr RS Rawat, Scientist-in-Charge, Biodiversity and Climate Change, gave a detailed account of activities conducted during the project period. Among the main activities were: preparation of State REDD Action Plan for the states of Mizoram and Uttarakhand, study on the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, and strategies to address the drivers. Dr Rawat also highlighted capacity building programmes and various income generation activities initiated for the local communities. A small documentary highlighting the project achievements was also released on the occasion.
VRS Rawat, Consultant at ICFRE, gave a presentation on National REDD+ Strategy recently released by the Ministry of the Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The strategy will address drivers of deforestation and forest degradation and also develop a road map for enhancement of forest carbon stocks and achieving sustainable management of forests through REDD+ actions. The strategy will support empowerment of youth cadres as Community Foresters to lead the charge at the local level. A Green Skill Development programme for imparting forestry related specialised skill will be implemented. REDD+ attracts highest attention in developing country like India, where local communities, forest dwelling tribal communities have high dependency on forests for their livelihoods.
Dr Sanjay Singh, Scientist at ICFRE, presented a framework for developing a safeguard information system when implementing REDD+ on the ground. As per UN requirements, countries implementing REDD+ must prepare a safeguard information system that addresses a set of governance, environmental and social safeguards. Participants had a brainstorming session on developing a safeguard information System. Existing Policies, Legislations and regulations that can form part of safeguard Information System were discussed.
Dr RS Rawat proposed the Vote of Thanks at the concluding session. Officers from ICFRE, FRI and other research organisations participated. Dr Shamila Kalia, ADG (Media and Extensions), ICFRE, Dr AK Pande, Head, Extension Division, FRI, NC Sarvanan, ADG, ICFRE, were among the senior officers from ICFRE and FRI present on the occasion.
