Context

In order to meet the growing population needs in India, large tracts of the country’s forests are being diverted to other land uses. India’s large rural population is directly dependent on its forests, especially for fuelwood, fodder, and other non-timber forest products (NTFPs). These demands continue to degrade and threaten the sustainability of India’s forests and the livelihoods of the communities that depend upon them. Forest-PLUS is tasked with identifying scientific, economic, and sustainable solutions – solutions that will reduce deforestation and degradation, increase forest cover, restore forest health and carbon stocks, and conserve India’s rich biodiversity while improving rural livelihoods and gender equity – and adapting them to India’s community forestry movement.

In November 2009, U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and Indian Minister of External Affairs, S.M. Krishna, signed a memorandum of understanding in which the U.S. and India agreed to enhance cooperation on energy security, energy efficiency, clean energy, and climate change. It recognized India’s strong track record of conserving forests and established the India Partnership for Land Use Science (Forest-PLUS) with the purpose of helping to improve the sustainability of forests in order to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through carbon sequestration, and to assist individuals and communities in adapting to climate change.

Approach

The UN-REDD Programme is the United Nations collaborative initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) in developing countries, while “REDD+” goes beyond deforestation and forest degradation, and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.  Tetra Tech is supporting the India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests’ (MOEF) REDD+ Cell and national initiative through the development of an integrated and inclusive approach to forest ecosystem management.  The Forest-PLUS project will do this by identifying barriers and opportunities faced by rural communities and Government of India initiatives alike, deploying science and tools that lead to pilot REDD+ projects at the landscape level, and consolidating institutions key to REDD+ development.
The project will build upon and improve traditional forest management structures while introducing best silviculture, carbon monitoring, and gender mainstreaming practices from around the world in order to achieve increased forest carbon stocks, more accurate monitoring, and improved socio-economic equity.

Results

The India Forest-PLUS program is organized around two primary technical components: Sustainable Landscapes Development and Sustainable Landscapes Deployment.
Sustainable Landscapes Development will focus on the exchange of scientific support and technical cooperation by:

• Developing tools, techniques, and methods for better ecosystem management and increased carbon sequestration, including implementing landscape management tools, applying tools for improving degraded forest, and using specific techniques for dense and moderately dense forests;
• Developing improved methods to establish carbon inventory and reference baselines for India through estimating carbon content in different forest types, facilitating community participation in local data collection, improving data management and availability, and providing capacity building; and,
• Analyzing social and economic incentives for REDD+ policy and practice by developing governance models, conducting a participatory gender analysis and conducting community outreach and training activities.

Sustainable Landscapes Deployment will focus on piloting scientific and technical approaches and results at scale by:

• Establishing government and stakeholder dialogue and communication processes with support at the national level focused on the MOEF’s REDD+ Cell, engaging in public outreach through strategic Public Private Partnerhips, and assisting state and local levels in strategizing and training for effective communications around REDD+;
• Engaging stakeholders constructively on REDD+ implementation through training to support long-term sustainability efforts for key private forest-sector activities and connecting communities with the voluntary carbon market; and,
• Strengthening the enabling environment through Human and Institutional Capacity Development (HICD), supporting key institutional partners and stakeholders at multiple levels, implementing a Forest Rights Act Campaign, and providing support for policy and legislative reform.

 

 

 

*Source: Tetra Tech International Development Services http://bit.ly/1jp94Ey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The information provided on this Website is not official U.S Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the U.S. Government.
USAID Forest-PLUS is an USAID funded program implemented by Tetra Tech.