Q Why is it in News ?
A
- LEAF (Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance) Coalition was announced at the Leaders Summit on Climate, 2021.
- LEAF coalition will be one of the largest ever public-private efforts to protect tropical forests and intend to mobilize at least USD 1 billion in financing to countries committed to protecting their tropical forests.
Q What is LEAF Coalition ?
A
- It is a collective of the governments of the USA, United Kingdom and Norway.
- As it is a public-private effort, thus also supported by transnational corporations (TNCs) like Unilever plc, Amazon.com, Nestle, Airbnb etc.
- A country willing to participate would need to fulfil certain predetermined conditions laid down by the Coalition.
Q What is Significance of LEAF ?
A
- Significance:
- Platform for Private Leadership: The goal of net zero emissions cannot be reached without bold leadership from the private sector and commitment to leverage its scale, investment capacity and political power to build a more sustainable, resilient and equitable future.
- Increases Carbon Sink: Tropical forests are massive carbon sinks and by investing in their protection, public and private players are likely to stock up on their carbon credits.
- It will help in achieving Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement.
- Achieve REDD+ Objectives: It is a step towards concretising the aims and objectives of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism.
- Solve Development versus Ecological Commitment: Such a financial impetus is crucial as it incentivises developing countries to capture extensive deforestation and provide livelihood opportunities to forest-dependent populations.
- Complements Other Global Goals: Ending tropical and subtropical forest loss by 2030 is vital to achieving global climate, biodiversity and sustainable development goals as well as sustaining the well-being and cultures of Indigenous peoples and other forest communities.
Q What is REDD+ ?
A
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation
- REDD+ aims to achieve climate change mitigation by incentivizing forest conservation.
- It monetises the value of carbon locked up in the tropical forests of most developing countries, thereby propelling these countries to help mitigate climate change.
- REDD+ was created by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Q What is Scenario in India ?
A
- India’s total forests is 24.56% of the geographical area of the country.
- Observations made by the Global Forest Watch:
- India lost nearly 38.5 thousand hectares (Kha) of tropical forest between 2019 and 2020 making up nearly 14% loss of its tree cover.
- Meanwhile, the total tropical forest area in India fell by 0.38%.
- Also, a 0.67% decrease in tree cover has also been recorded across the country in the same period.
- Mizoram has witnessed the biggest decline in forest area with a loss of 47.2 Kha , followed by Manipur, Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland.
Q What are major conservation steps taken by India ?
A
- Indian Forest Policy, 1952: It became conscious about the need to increase the forest cover to one-third of the total land area.
- National Forest Policy, 1988: The ultimate objective of the National Forest policy was to maintain environmental stability and ecological balance through conservation of forests as a natural heritage.
- The National Forest Policy in 1988 made a very significant and categorical shift from commercial concerns to focus on the ecological role of the forests and participatory management.
- Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority, (CAMPA Funds): For every time forest land is diverted for non-forest purposes such as mining or industry, the user agency pays for planting forests over an equal area of non-forest land, or when such land is not available, twice the area of degraded forest land.
- Some Legislations that Govern Indian Forests:
- Indian Forest Act 1927
- Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act 2016
- Forest Conservation Act 1980
- Forest Rights Act 2006
- Wildlife Protection Act 1972