| Policy watch May - June 2008 |
- Himachal Pradesh increases forest cover through carbon credits
- Draft policy on carbon credits ready
- India Plans to Spend US $ 2.4 Billion on Rejuvenating Forestland
- New CRRI varieties to contain price rise
- Bamboo is grass and not tree, says CII joint study
- 17,000 forest fires every year, but lack of any reliable database
- Plantations, tree canopy included in definition
- Rainfed projects to be overseen by States
- Dryland crop yield to fall upto 30 per cent
- Rains delay kharif pulses sowing in India
- Water-proof rice to make a splash next year
Himachal Pradesh increases forest cover through carbon credits
Himachal Pradesh state forest department will soon finalise the mechanism for making payments to farmers under the carbon credit scheme for raising forests on private and community land, as part of the World Bank-funded Mid-Himalayan Watershed Development Project.
Last year, Himachal Pradesh became the first state in Asia and second in the world to introduce a scheme for selling carbon credits directly to the World Bank. This has enabled the villagers to earn Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 per hectare annually from the plantations for 30 years. The money will go to the individual in case of private plantation and in the case of community land, a part of it will go to the panchayat concerned and the major portion will be divided among the group of people who protect the plantation. The new plantations will be raised over 12,000 hectares of degraded and fallow land (lying fallow since 1990) under the scheme in a phased manner.
Draft policy on carbon credits ready
Himachal Pradesh has come out with a draft policy on carbon credits- focusing on effective environment management strategies, clean development mechanism (CDM) and steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the state. The policy, prepared by the state’s Department of Environment and Scientific Technologies, would be finalised by December 2008.
Under the draft policy, the potential areas for earning carbon credits are energy efficiency and conservation, renewable energy, gas, transport, industry, afforestation and land restoration, waste management and land use change for greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation. Additional measures include steps to recover energy from waste and to avoid landfills, biofuel crop plantation, adopting environment mitigation technology, efficient public transport system and use of ropeways for transportation.
India plans to spend US $ 2.4 billion on rejuvenating forestland
India plans to spend 100 billion rupees (US $ 2.4 billion) on rejuvenating three million hectares of degraded forests to increase the green cover and soak up emissions. According to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, the government proposes to revive more than six million hectares of degraded forests in two phases over the next 10 years. The first phase envisages planting trees over three million hectares starting 2008. Part of the money for renewing the forests will come from a fund that collects money from people who are using forest land for various purposes and from the sale of carbon credits.
Forests covered 67.7 million hectares, or 20.6 percent, of India's geographical area in 2006, the government has said. That is 0.1 percent less than in 2003. The world's second-most populous nation needs $5 billion a year between 2012 and 2017, in addition to its current investment plans, to support a transition to low-carbon energy generation, the United Nations Development Program said in a 2007/2008 report.
New CRRI varieties to contain price rise
The Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI) has introduced five new high-yielding rice varieties in Orissa to assist in tiding over the food crisis. The seeds have been submitted to the Centre and the formal notification of the varieties is expected.
Orissa languishes very low on production parameters with yield of below one tonne. According to the CRRI scientists, the new varieties have been developed in consonance with the different ecologies of the state – from irrigated to rainfed and uplands to low lands. The varieties are also resistant to a number of pests. It is estimated that about 30 to 40 per cent of the state’s crop yield is lost to pest infestations and diseases every year. Proper extension to the grassroots and their adoption by farmers can raise production levels in Orissa significantly.
Bamboo is grass and not tree, says CII joint study
A recent joint study titled ‘Industrialisation of bamboo sector in India’ by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the India Development Foundation states that bamboo is a grass. The study suggests that various restrictions on bamboo’s harvest, transit and trade should be removed thus, encouraging growth on private lands.
Bamboo production in the country at 13.47 million tonnes (mt) a year is far short of the 26.69 mt demand a year. This is despite an absence of a bamboo-based industrial sector and paper mills. According to the study, three things can be done to overcome the problem of supply shortage in bamboo, which grows faster than wood and needs less water. “First, the Government can embark on a systematic plan to rejuvenate the degraded bamboo forest areas by the Forest Department. Second, the yield can be increased and third, private plantations can be promoted to meet the needs of the bamboo-based products and applications”.
17,000 forest fires every year, but lack of any reliable database
India reports more than 17,000 cases of forest fire annually. But, the Centre is yet to establish a reliable database to determine spatial and temporal patterns of fire occurrence. These are crucial in identifying sensitive areas and periods for forest fire. Majority of the forest fire cases are reported during the months of February till May. Of the total percentage of forest area in the country, 54.7 per cent is prone to fire, which damages more than a million hectare of forest annually and economic loss about Rs 440 crores. The Centre has no precise data related to actual area burnt annually, and their ecological, economic and environmental consequences. One of the main reasons behind this is that the Centre is largely dependent on states to furnish this data and states still continue with conventional methods of mitigation.
According to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, India still needs to set up advanced mechanism for issues related to forest fire like danger rating system, burnt area mapping and fire-risk zones.
Plantations, tree canopy included in definition
The 2007-08 State of the Forest Report states that the forest cover is around 20 per cent of the land in the country, 3 per cent less than the area under the forest departments.
However, the report has been criticised on the grounds of failing to make a distinction between tree cover, commercial plantations and natural forest cover. To qualify as ‘forest cover’, the Forest Survey of India (FSI) considers 10 per cent tree canopy area and a hectare of land area. So, if a household has a hectare of coconut palm, his land would qualify as forest cover.
According to FSI, “There is an absence of boundaries for forest areas, so it is difficult to tell a forest from a plantation”. The definition of forest cover may also include apple orchards or poplar, acacia or eucalyptus plantations.
Rainfed projects to be overseen by states
A new set of guidelines approved by the National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA), a nodal agency to monitor watershed projects, empowers the states to sanction and oversee the implementation of watershed projects supported by the Centre. The guidelines in affect from April 2008 are aimed at achieving better utilisation of resources and quicker implementation at the grassroots level particularly the rainfed areas. Till now, five ministries — rural development, agriculture, environment and forests, water resources and panchayati raj — were responsible for sanctioning and implementing watershed projects, with differing guidelines and separate accounts of their own.
Besides a dedicated state level nodal agency, a District Watershed Development Unit (DWDU) would be established in districts with more than 25,000 hectares under watershed works. The DWDU would implement all the watershed projects with independent accounts of their own – a first in centrally sponsored schemes.
Dryland crop yield to fall upto 30 per cent
Climate change-triggered temperature rise will reduce the yield of dryland crops by 8 to 30 per cent, according to the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). Dry tropics, where rainfed farming provides 60 per cent of the world's food, will be most vulnerable to climate change.
Rains delay kharif pulses sowing in India
Sowing operations of kharif, or summer-sown pulses, have fallen behind schedule due to deficient rainfall in main growing regions. This has increased the prices by more than nine per cent. Prices of crops like soybean have risen more than 60 per cent in the last one year.
Pulses are mainly rainfed crops and sowing operations usually start after the first monsoon showers. The June-September monsoon generally covers main producing states – Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. However, pulse-growing areas have not received enough rains needed for sowing.
Water-proof rice to make a splash next year
Farmers in India and Bangladesh will likely start commercial production of flood-tolerant rice next year giving them protection against crop losses from typhoons and heavy monsoon rains. According to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), this particular variety of rice could survive for about two weeks under water.
Floodwaters regularly engulf vast rainfed lowland areas of Asia. Crop losses from prolonged submergence are estimated at around US $ 1 billion a year.
With the flood-resistant variety, farmers could produce six tonnes of rice per hectare under normal conditions and around three tonnes if the paddy is submerged for two weeks. Normal varieties would only yield a tonne or less if subjected to this sort of submergence.
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