issue with tree planting schemes
issue with tree planting schemes
In tackling the many problems -
- adequate finances,
- active community participation and
- technical considerations need to be prioritised
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degraded forest landscape
exploitation of forest resources
1 due to uncontrolled and unsustainable practices has degraded forest landscapes.
2 The World Bank estimates that the world has lost about 10 million square kilometres of forests since the start of the 20th century.
2021-2030 as a Decade of Ecosystem Restoration
1 The emphasis on forest restoration approaches to bring such degraded ecosystems back to their earlier state was
the main purpose of declaring the decade of 2021-2030 as a Decade of Ecosystem Restoration by the United Nations.
2 This targeted the restoration of 350 million hectares of degraded land
- to generate $9 trillion in ecosystem services
- and sequester an additional 13 gigatons-26 gigatons of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
what is the profit ? and scheme
This includes biological carbon sequestration
This as a mechanism to store and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
mass-scale drive of tree planting
This is one reason to consider a mass-scale drive of tree planting as a silver bullet to tackle the challenges of climate change globally, by governmental and non-governmental organisations including individuals.
Van Mahotsava (‘festival of trees’)
Keeping this indispensable role of trees in maintaining the ecological balance, the then Indian Agriculture Minister, K.M. Munshi, launched the Van Mahotsava (‘festival of trees’) programme in July 1950.
Since then, India has been religiously celebrating this programme of tree planting, annually, in the first week of July.
To some extent, these efforts have been successful not only in motivating people but also in bringing tangible results that include improving the forest area.
Fancy drives, catchy slogans
some of programme
With catchy
- slogans,
- glamorous drives and
- headline-grabbing campaigns,
- these programmes of tree planting, both globally and at a national level, have attracted huge media attention and the involvement of people including various organisations to fulfil their objectives.
Be it a single day of a planting drive in various Indian States, the
- “One Trillion Project” of the World Economic Forum,
- the “Great Green Wall of China”,
- the “10 Billion Tree Tsunami” of Pakistan or
- the “Bonn Challenge” to restore 150 million hectares of degraded and
- deforested landscapes by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030, many of these drives may seem welcome.
for
- limited community participation,
- a lack of adequate post-planting measures
- and for promoting monoculture,
- thereby proving less effective for carbon sequestration and biodiversity development.
The problem with such drives
major concern of environmentalists and scientists
1 The neglect of ecology and locality with little involvement of people in various tree planting programmes has been a major concern of environmentalists and scientists in recent years.
2 In a study led by Joseph Veldman -
it was found that except for deforested areas, tree planting in certain locations such as grasslands and animal habitat
- destroys plant and animal habitats
- and can damage ecosystems,
- increase wildfire intensity and
- exacerbate global warming.
Similarly, William Bond and colleagues, in their study,
said these lands are highly productive and biodiverse, supporting many livestock and people.
Planting saplings alone does not fulfil the multifarious expectations
we should
- post-planting measures
- and monitoring of tree growth — which we hardly find in the majority of tree-planting drives,
- more specifically in those programmes which are not supported by the government.
India’s challenges
India and America
In 2023, in a joint address with United States President Joe Biden, the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, said at the White House that ‘India is the only G20 country that has fulfilled its commitments under the Paris Agreement’.
Ashwini Kumar Choubey
said that ‘India has achieved an additional carbon sink of 1.97 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent’.
loss In India, nearly
- 10 million hectares of its forests are under encroachment,
- nearly 27.5 crore of people are dependent on forests for subsistence
- and nearly 5.7 million hectares of forest land have been lost for non-forestry purposes since Independence.
These are challenges that pose problems for India’s initiatives to restore 26 million hectares of degraded forests by 2030 and to improve forest cover using steps that include tree planting.
In the background of the criticism of mass planting drives, we need to introspect these strategies, giving much required space to adequate finances, active community participation and technical considerations.
These have not been given priority.
Along with public awareness campaigns, social media, and incentivised community participation, such reoriented innervations and strategies can help to bring changes in the ecological systems of our forests, and with increasing numbers, also help to create resilient forests that have diverse capacities and capabilities.
source the hindui
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