Recent Developments & Controversy

Government passed a regulation tweaking few guidelines of NAP in 2018. The changes include,

• States with over 75 per cent forest cover, looking to divert forest land for non-forestry projects, can now carry out compensatory afforestation in other states.
• Isolated patches having an area less than five hectares are difficult to manage as forests and hence, no non-forest land, having an area less than five hectares shall be accepted for compensatory afforestation purpose.

Controversy

• First change created quite a stir as it is alleged that it will have a detrimental impact on the bio-diversity of North-Eastern States. Lack of controlling mechanism is touted to be the reason which would lead to gross mismanagement and hence the second change is also resisted.
• The central objective of the programme is ecological restoration of degraded forests and to develop the forest resources with peoples’ participation, with focus on improvement in livelihoods of the forest-fringe communities, especially the poor.
• The Scheme is implemented in a participatory manner using a two-tiered set up namely the Forest Development Agencies (FDA) and Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMCs). The Scheme is demand driven and afforestation area is sanctioned on the basis of past performance, potential degraded forest land available for eco-restoration and availability of budget.

Issues

• As per a study by Community Forest Rights-Learning and Advocacy (CFR-LA), 70% of afforestation lands are in forest area, which is a clear violation of the guidelines which specifically mentions that the afforestation must be done in non-forested land.
• Till August 2018, funds amounting to about Rs. 520 billion (Rs. 52,000 crores) were lying unused with the central government for carrying out compensatory afforestation across India. This amount was collected from companies in lieu of diversion of forest area to carry out compensatory afforestation.
• The other big issues include impact on biodiversity of the region, plantation of invasive species, etc.

The government must use the funds at its disposal efficiently; ensure a proper accountability mechanism to address the above concerns thereby making afforestation successful.