{"id":139340,"date":"2021-10-05T20:59:58","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T15:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=139340"},"modified":"2021-10-12T16:36:44","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T11:06:44","slug":"taproots-to-help-restore-indias-fading-green-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/taproots-to-help-restore-indias-fading-green-cover\/","title":{"rendered":"Taproots to help restore India\u2019s fading green cover\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Synopsis<\/strong>: Forest restoration activities and why they are important. Various challenges associated with forest restoration and solutions to deal with it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

Forest covers\u00a0nearly 30% land surface of the earth. They\u00a0provide a\u00a0wide variety of ecosystem services\u00a0and support countless and diverse\u00a0species\u00a0around the globe. They also\u00a0stabilise\u00a0the climate, sequester carbon and regulate the water regime.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the reason that forest restoration activities have become increasingly popular?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As\u00a0per the\u00a0State of\u00a0the World\u2019s Forests report 2020,\u00a0since 1990, around 420\u00a0million hectares of forest have\u00a0been lost through deforestation,\u00a0conversion and land degradation. India lost 4.69\u00a0MHA of its forests for various land\u00a0uses between 1951 to 1995.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite various international\u00a0conventions and national policies\u00a0in place to improve green cover,\u00a0there is a decline in global forest\u00a0cover. <\/span><\/p>\n

This is the prime reason for\u00a0forest restoration activities including tree planting to become increasingly popular. We have declared\u00a0<\/span>2021-2030 as the UN Decade on\u00a0Ecosystem Restoration<\/span><\/b>\u00a0for improving environmental conditions and\u00a0enhancing human communities.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is restoration?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

Restoration is\u00a0bringing back the degraded or deforested landscape to its original\u00a0state by various interventions. It\u00a0enables\u00a0them to deliver all the\u00a0benefits. Building and maintaining\u00a0activities help to improve ecological functions, productivity and\u00a0create resilient forests with multifarious capabilities. India\u00a0shelters\u00a08%\u00a0of the world\u2019s known\u00a0flora\u00a0and fauna.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the key challenges\u00a0associated with the forest restoration?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

First<\/b><\/em>, local ecology with a research\u00a0base: forest restoration and tree\u00a0planting are leading strategies to\u00a0fight global warming by way of carbon sequestration. However,\u00a0planting without considering the\u00a0local ecology,\u00a0planting a forest in the wrong places such as savannah grasslands\u00a0are\u00a0more\u00a0dangerous.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Second<\/em>,<\/span><\/b>\u00a0as per recent\u00a0research,\u00a0naturally regenerated forests tend\u00a0to have more secure carbon storage. Being less tech-sensitive,\u00a0cost-effective\u00a0and conserving more biodiversity, natural forest restoration is becoming more widely\u00a0accepted.\u00a0But we must\u00a0consider the local\u00a0ecology before implementing any restoration efforts to retain their\u00a0biodiversity and ecosystem functions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Third<\/b><\/em>, restoration\u00a0needs research support\u00a0for its success.\u00a0Active restoration includes\u00a0planting and\u00a0passive restoration focuses\u00a0on halting environmental stressors or adopting\u00a0an intermediate approach of aided\u00a0natural regeneration. For\u00a0both we\u00a0need critical examination before putting\u00a0restoration interventions into\u00a0practice.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the situation in India?\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nearly 5.03% of Indian forests are\u00a0under protection area (PA) management. They\u00a0need\u00a0specific restoration strategies. The remaining\u00a0areas witness a range of disturbances including grazing, encroachment, fire, and climate\u00a0change impacts that need area\u00a0specific considerations.\u00a0Much of the research done\u00a0on restoration is not fully compatible with India\u2019s diverse\u00a0ecological\u00a0habitats.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hence,\u00a0<\/span>local research duly considering ecological aspects,\u00a0local disturbances and forest-dependent communities is vital to\u00a0formulate guidelines for locally\u00a0suitable interventions and to meet\u00a0India\u2019s global commitment<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the solutions for protection and development of forests?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

First<\/b><\/em>,\u00a0participation of local communities with finances for incentives and rewards is essential to redress this complex riddle.\u00a0We can involve local people by\u00a0forming joint forest\u00a0management committees\u00a0(JFMC).\u00a0At the same time,\u00a0review of their functionality and performance is essential to make them more dynamic and effective.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Second<\/strong><\/em>,\u00a0negotiations with a\u00a0wide range of stakeholders including these committees for resolving\u00a0conflicts and fulfilling restoration\u00a0objectives.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Third<\/strong><\/em>, adequate\u00a0financing\u00a0is needed for\u00a0restoration.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fourth<\/strong><\/em>, we need the active approach of restoration which includes tree planting and the involvement of\u00a0communities seeks incentives and\u00a0rewards and make the whole affair\u00a0quite cost-intensive.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fifth<\/strong><\/em>, the contribution of corporates in restoration efforts,\u00a0land-based\u00a0programmes\u00a0of\u00a0various departments.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sixth<\/strong><\/em>, active engagement of stakeholders including non-governmental\u00a0organisations, awareness and capacity building of stakeholders\u00a0with enabling policy interventions\u00a0and finance can help a lot to\u00a0achieve the remaining 16 MHA restoration objectives for India.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/strong>: This post is based on the article “Taproots to help restore India\u2019s fading green cover<\/strong>” published in The Hindu<\/strong> on 5th October 2021<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Synopsis: Forest restoration activities and why they are important. Various challenges associated with forest restoration and solutions to deal with it.\u00a0 Introduction\u00a0 Forest covers\u00a0nearly 30% land surface of the earth. They\u00a0provide a\u00a0wide variety of ecosystem services\u00a0and support countless and diverse\u00a0species\u00a0around the globe. They also\u00a0stabilise\u00a0the climate, sequester carbon and regulate the water regime.\u00a0\u00a0 What is the… Continue reading Taproots to help restore India\u2019s fading green cover\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[235,10187,10185,216,10186],"class_list":["post-139340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-ecosystem","tag-forest-conservation","tag-forest-scosystem","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-un-decade-on-ecosystem-restoration","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704779164},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}