SIGNIFICANCE
- Significance of forests in relation to climate change:The Green India Club Mission recognizes the influences and potential that the forests and other natural ecosystems have on climate adaptation/mitigation, and food, water, environmental and livelihood
- Food security:Forests are essential for maintaining favourable and stable conditions needed for sustained agricultural productivity.
- Water security: Forests are vital for maintaining the hydrological cycle and regulating water flows and sub-soil water regimes, recharging the aquifers and maintaining the flow of water in rivers and rivulets. Forest ecosystems are the source of a large number of rivers and rivulets in the country. The forested watersheds have better availability as well as quality of water than watersheds under alternative land uses.
- Livelihood security of local communities: Forests provide a range of provisioning services, particularly fuel wood, fodder, small timber, NTFP and medicinal plants, and artisan raw material like canes and bamboo, that are crucial to livelihood security of forest-dependent communities. Nearly 27% of the total population of India, comprising 275 million rural people, depends on forests for their livelihoods. This number includes 89 million tribal people, who constitute the poorest and most marginalized section of the country. NTFP sector with an annual growth rate between 5-15% also contributes to 75% of the forest sector export income.
KEY CHALLENGES
- Demand and supply gap of various provisioning services from forests
- The productivity of Indian forests is low as compared to the world standards
CORE PRINCIPLES
- Traditional Ecological Knowledge of communities, along with forestry science and state-of-the-art technology would improve the Mission interventions.
- The scope of greening will not be limited to just trees and plantations; emphasis will be on restoration of ecosystems and habitat diversity
- The Mission will provide for adaptation/ mitigation measures that enhance ecosystem goods and services, particularly carbon stocks, water, and meet biodiversity conservation and livelihood security needs.
