Ten Indian states have approved over 500 plots of degraded forest lands for inclusion in the government’s Green Credit Programme despite experts and environmentalists objecting the scheme rules could have devastating impact on ecosystems.
Maharashtra, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu have so far identified over 5,000 hectares of degraded land parcels, according to the official land registry.
Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana have approved the highest number of degraded lands for the plantation of trees, with most plots around 5-15 hectares each.
Under the scheme companies can fund tree planting on the land, earning one green credit for every tree planted that they can use towards meeting voluntary ESG or other environmental targets.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change in February released guidelines for the state governments to identify “degraded land parcels of area five hectares or above including open forest and scrubland, wasteland, and catchment areas” as available for green credits through tree plantation.
However, the guidelines led to an outcry, with several environmental experts terming the scheme “disastrous” because it incentivises planting trees in landscapes where they don’t belong and will have grave impact on existing ecosystems.
Last month, a group of over 90 former government officials, which included several former servicemen from the environment ministry, wrote an open letter to the government urging it to withdraw the guidelines.
The officials said that all forest lands in the country were home to a wide variety of plant and animal species, and mass plantations in these areas can mean the end of those species.
The green credit scheme launched last year identified eight types of activities that qualify for the generation of green credits, tree planting being just one of them.
While the tree planting part of the scheme has gained lot of traction, development of regulations and projects under other categories, such as water conservation, sustainable agriculture, and waste management, has been quite slow.
The South Asian nation plans to reach net zero emissions by 2070 and is heavily pushing tree planting initiatives across the country to reach its goals. It has also committed to protecting 30% of its terrestrial and marine area by 2030 under the Global Biodiversity Framework.
In February, the country’s planning commission – NITI Aayog – launched an initiative to restore 26 million hectares of the country’s wastelands by 2030.
By Nikita Pandey – nikita@carbon-pulse.com
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