Login With Google
Panel approves scheme to ‘trade’ in forests
Why in news?
- The Forest Advisory Committee, an apex body tasked with adjudicating requests by the industry to raze forest land for commercial ends, has approved a scheme that could allow “forests” to be traded as a commodity.
- If implemented, it allows the Forest Department to outsource one of its responsibilities of reforesting to non-government agencies.
More in news
- Current System:
(1) Make good the loss of forest: Industry needs to make good the loss of forest by finding appropriate non-forest land equal to that which would be razed.
(2) Pay Net Present Value: It also must pay the State Forest Department the current economic equivalent — called Net Present Value — of the forest land.
(3) Responsibility of Department then: It’s then the department’s responsibility to grow appropriate vegetation that, over time, would grow into forests.
- Complaints by the Industry: Hard to acquire non-forest land: Industries have often complained that they find it hard to acquire appropriate non-forest land, which has to be contiguous to existing forest
- Funds lying unspent:
(1) States not regrowing trees: Nearly ₹50,000 crore had been collected by the Centre over decades, but the funds were lying unspent because States were not spending the money on regrowing forests.
(2) SC Intervention: The Supreme Court intervened, a new law came about with rules for how this fund was to be administered.
(3) Bare Rejuvenation: About ₹47,000 crore had been disbursed to States until August, but it has barely led to any rejuvenation of forests.
- Proposed ‘Green Credit Scheme’
(1) It allows agencies — they could be private companies, village forest communities — to identify land and begin growing plantations.
(2) After three years, they would be eligible to be considered as compensatory forest land if they met the Department’s criteria.
Sources
The Hindu