WRI India at India Land Development Conference 2019
WRI India invites you to attend the India Land Development Conference 2019 and participate in the following sessions:
Masterclass on the Restoration Opportunities Atlas of India
Who: Marie Duraisami, Dr. K M Jayahari, Sidhtharthan Seagrin, Dr. Ruchika Singh
When: Wednesday, March 13, 2019 at 9:00 AM to 10:30 AM
WRI India recently launched the Restoration Opportunities Atlas for India, an interactive and web-based platform that can enable strategic planning for forest protection and landscape restoration in the country. The Restoration Opportunities Atlas brings together fragmented data and through rigorous analysis, to answer three questions:
• Where can forest and tree cover be protected and increased, and how much carbon sequestration will this result in?
• Which tree-based restoration interventions have been implemented in different states? Who are the principal actors who have implemented these projects?
• What necessary enabling conditions need to be in place and what risks addressed to ensure achievement of protection and restoration goals?
The masterclass will elaborate on how the Atlas could serve as a planning tool that can enable developing pathways for forest protection and landscape restoration that can support in meeting India’s forestry commitment under the Paris climate agreement and the national targets underpinning the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
For further questions about the masterclass, please reach out to Marie Duraisami (Marie.duraisami@wri.org).
Register here for this session.
Panel discussion on Modalities for Building a Community-Led Restoration Movement at Scale
When: Wednesday, March 13, 2019 at 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM
Session Chair: Dr. Rita Sinha, Former Secretary, Department of land Resources (TBC)
Panellists
• Introduction: Landscape restoration opportunity in India: community led restoration as a pathway to scaling restoration in India | Dr. Ruchika Singh, WRI India
• Role of institutions in building a community led restoration movement: experiences from Maharashtra | Dr. Geetanjoy Sahu, TISS
• Upscaling Community led restoration efforts - How Community Forest Rights under FRA can help? | Ambrish Mehta, ARCH
• Community led forest resource management and conservation in the context of FRA (2006): Experiences from the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve | Dr. Jyotsna Krishnakumar, Keystone foundation
• Forest management experience sharing from Karbi-Anglong autonomous council | Shri. Tuliram Ronghang, Karbi Anglong district council, Assam
Forests and agriculture are the economic lifelines of over 700 million people living in rural India. This includes about 89 million tribal population who constitute the poorest and most marginalized sections of the country. Recently published, IPCC special report on global warming of 1.5°C indicates that consequences of the 1°C warming are already being felt through increased extreme weather events, rising sea levels, among others. These changes in climate variability and intensity of extreme events has increased vulnerability of 700 million people in India who are dependent on land and forests for their sustenance. Developing sustainable pathways that can enable avoiding climate change impacts, and limit global warming to 1.5°C to 2°C is critical. Integrating trees within different land uses, has been identified as an effective natural climate solution to complex environmental and social challenges arising due to climate change.
There is growing international consensus that recognition of community forest resource rights, for instance, can lead to healthier forests, and lower carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. India has a rich history of landscape restoration interventions implemented as part of various forest and wildlife management plans, watershed development and rural development programs. These projects comprised of multiple actors including government, civil society, private sector, communities and other institutions with varying impacts on environment, communities and the economy. Despite the long history, restoration in India is characterized by small scale, site-level successes which have not scaled up. With forest dependent communities emerging as a major stakeholder, this could be one pathway for achieving restoration at scale. This session would discuss the emerging experience from the local level on opportunities and constraints faced post rights recognition for resource management. What are the financial mechanisms, knowledge and capacity building measures that could be key for developing a network of community led restoration and management in India at scale. What are the potential pathway for strengthening the institutional mechanism for community led restoration?
For further questions about this session, please reach out to Ruchika Singh (Ruchika.Singh@wri.org).
Register here for this session.
A detailed agenda for the conference can be found here.
