{"id":18244,"date":"2018-04-05T15:38:19","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T10:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=18244"},"modified":"2018-04-05T15:38:19","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T10:08:19","slug":"compensatory-afforestation-fund-flawed-and-unjust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/compensatory-afforestation-fund-flawed-and-unjust\/","title":{"rendered":"Compensatory Afforestation Fund: flawed and unjust"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><u>Context:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As recently confirmed by the Ministry of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, there has been a significant growth in Central compensatory afforestation fund (CAF).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Background: <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>March, 2018:<\/strong> Ministry of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change has collected over Rs. 50,000 core in a Central compensatory afforestation fund (CAF).<\/li>\n<li>This money is to be used though the <strong>Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Act, 2016 or CAF.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>In news: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The recent raise in fund measures the <strong>forest destruction<\/strong> under way in India.<\/li>\n<li>It also indicates a potent <strong>scale of resource appropriation<\/strong> from some of India\u2019s <strong>most marginalized citizens<\/strong> living in and around forests.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016: <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In <strong>August, 2016<\/strong> the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 has come into force.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Note: <\/strong>It extends to the whole of India except the State of Jammu and Kashmir.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Salient features of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016: <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The salient features of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Establishment of the <strong>National Compensatory Afforestation Fund<\/strong> under the Public Account of India, and a <strong>State Compensatory Afforestation Fund<\/strong> under the Public Account of each state.<\/li>\n<li>The payments into the funds include:\n<ul>\n<li>Compensatory afforestation,<\/li>\n<li>Net Present Value\u00a0 (NPV), and<\/li>\n<li>Any project specific payments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>National Fund will get 10%<\/strong> of funds collected and the remaining <strong>90% will go to respective State Fund.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The collected funds will be utilized for:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Afforestation,<\/li>\n<li>Regeneration of forest ecosystem,<\/li>\n<li>Wild life protection and<\/li>\n<li>Infrastructure development.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Levies are imposed on development projects<\/strong> that seek land inside a Reserved Forest or a Protected Area (PA) in a sanctuary or a national park.<\/li>\n<li>Establishment of <strong>National and State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authorities (CAMPA)<\/strong> to manage the funds.<\/li>\n<li>NPV <strong>quantifies the services provided by the forest.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It includes:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>goods and services (tourism and timber);<\/li>\n<li>regulating services (climate change); and<\/li>\n<li>None-material benefits (recreation).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>It seeks to provide:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Safety,<\/li>\n<li>Security and<\/li>\n<li>Transparency in utilization of CAMPA funds which are currently kept in Nationalized Banks and managed by an ad-hoc body.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>These funds would be brought under the focus of <strong>Parliament and State Legislatures by transferring them to non-lapsable interest bearing funds.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The <strong>determination of NPV<\/strong> will be delegated to an <strong>expert committee <\/strong>constituted by the central government.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Importance of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016: <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The importance of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ensures the <strong>utilization of approximately Rs 50,000 crore rupees<\/strong> available with the Ad-hoc CAMPA for <strong>afforestation, regeneration of forest, infrastructure development and protection of wild life.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Impact generated by the <strong>diversion of forests will get reduced, <\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Backward tribal areas would get <strong>employment opportunities<\/strong>, and<\/li>\n<li>Increases <strong>green cover and creation of productive assets<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Challenges of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The challenges of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 are:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Forest bureaucracy:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>No safeguards against the forest bureaucracy implementing compensatory-plantations on already dense forests.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Availability of non-forest land for Afforestation: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Difficulty is faced especially in smaller states and heavily forested states like Chhattisgarh to find non-forest lands for afforestation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Diversion of Fund: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The diversion of funds for other activities would take away the focus from the prime objective of compensating for the forest cover lost to developmental or industrial development.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Provisions of Forest Rights Act, 2006 being ignored: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Consultations, an important guideline to be followed, are not stipulated for all afforestation projects nor involve the affected gram sabhas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Against democratic devolution:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Provisions of the act are against the principles of democratic devolution as laid down in the 73<sup>rd<\/sup>and 74<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0constitutional amendments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Way ahead: <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Enable independent audit of all connected programmes.<\/li>\n<li>Implementation of the projects should be through the Compensatory Afforestation Fund to ensure effective and proper utilization of funds.<\/li>\n<li>Address concerns over its discordances with Forest Rights Act (FRA), lack of livelihood generation and eviction and poor participation of local communities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: As recently confirmed by the Ministry of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, there has been a significant growth in Central compensatory afforestation fund (CAF). Background: March, 2018: Ministry of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change has collected over Rs. 50,000 core in a Central compensatory afforestation fund (CAF). This money is&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/compensatory-afforestation-fund-flawed-and-unjust\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Compensatory Afforestation Fund: flawed and unjust<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":15847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-editorials","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/india_forest_cover_1518500136_980x457.jpg?fit=1078%2C504&ssl=1","views":{"total":108,"cached_at":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18244","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\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}