By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 9 Dec: Forest Research Institute and the British Deputy High Commission, Chandigarh jointly organized a webinar titled ‘Climate-Smart Forestry: an instrument for mitigating climate change’ on 08 December. Director General, ICFRE and Director, FRI A. S. Rawat, IFS, and British Deputy High Commissioner, Chandigarh Caroline Rowett chaired the occasion. The event was attended by scientists, forest officers, academicians, and research scholars from India and abroad. The Group Coordinator Research, FRI Dr. N. K. Upreti welcomed the guests. Caroline Rowett, in her address highlighted the importance of minimizing emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) from forests; enhancing carbon sequestration, and building more resilient forest ecosystem. She opined that to maximize the climate benefits of forests, we must keep more forest landscapes intact, manage them more sustainably, and restore more of those landscapes which we have lost. Arun Singh Rawat stressed upon developing a more resilient forest ecosystem to mitigate climate change alongside the co-benefits of various ecosystem services. During the webinar, five panellists made their presentations on various issues related to climate-smart forestry. Ana Yang from Chatham House Sustainability Accelerator, UK, presentated a global perspective on forestry and climate change intersection. Dr. Jagmohan Sharma, Director General, Environmental Management & Policy Research Institute, Bangalore described different frameworks for climate-smart forestry for India. N. Bala, Scientist G, FRI Dehradun apprised the gathering about the initiatives of ICFRE to address climate change issues in forestry sector. Dr. C. Buvaneswaran, Scientist-F, IFGTB, Coimbatore gave his presentation on selection of adaptive genotypes in tree species for climate-smart forestry. Dr. Anirban Ganguly, Research specialist, South Asia Research Hub, British High Commission talked about economic perspectives of forests highlighting the co-benefits. Participants interacted with the panelists during a question-answer session at the end of the presentations. Dr. Vijender Panwar, Head, Forest Ecology and Climate Change Division, FRI moderated the webinar. The joint event ended with a vote of thanks proposed by Madhu Mishra, Prosperity Adviser, Economics, Climate & Development, British Deputy High Commission, Chandigarh.
