SOCIAL FORESTRY DEVELOPMENT

Climate Action (Sustainable Development Goal - 13, 15, 1, 2 & 3)

The United Nations General Assembly has defined 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to be acted upon by the nations of the World. It is indeed a matter of great satisfaction that IFFDC has made a significant contribution towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-13) "Climate Action", SDG-15 "Life on Land", SDG-1 "No Poverty", SDG-2 "Zero Hunger" and SDG-3 "Good Health & Well Being" through its multiple Social Forestry Development Programmes, Integrated Watershed Management, Climate Proofing activities etc.

1. Social Forestry Development

IFFDC's flagship programme of Farm Forestry focuses on mitigating climate change effects through developing participatory forestry on waste and marginalised lands belonging to individual farmers, village Panchayats and Government. The concerned communities are organised by IFFDC initial actions into Primary Farm Forestry Cooperative Societies (PFFCS), designed as the key community institutions to manage and maintain the developed participatory forests, on a sustainable basis.

IFFDC supports the PFFCS with the necessary technical and financial inputs, as well as capacity building, networking, marketing and resource mobilisation inputs. As a result of its intervention, the green cover has not only been improved in more than 500 villages, but degraded lands therein have also been restored. Economic returns from existing forests are presently restricted to selective pruning, Grasses and Minor Forest Produce (MFP) etc. This has been further accelerated so as to harvest other environmental services/benefits to the community through carbon credits generation.

The integrated approach followed by IFFDC has also led to attention being given to related activities such as control of illegal felling, prevention of encroachment and fire, better forest yield for improving economic returns to the stakeholders, commercial options such as trading of carbon credits generated through these forests and defining the usufruct rights of these lands, etc. The PFFCS are being encouraged to undertake plantation of improved fast growing as well as indigenous long gestation plant species and business of Agri-inputs for economic self-sufficiency and sustainability.

At the outset, IFFDC identified for afforestation large tracts of wasteland, which had been lying almost barren for decades in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand. These acquired wastelands are Panchayat lands in Rajasthan, individual lands in Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand and Revenue land in Madhya Pradesh. 151 Primary Farm Forestry Cooperative Societies (PFFCS) have been developed for management of the community forests developed on 29,421 Hectares.

Research and development work on Forestry improvement, an important input for continued qualitative and quantitative enhancement of ongoing efforts, is also being undertaken by these PFFCS. Four research trials of 153 Genotypes of Neem (Azadirachta indica) have been undertaken in the PFFCS of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh with the help of IFFCO and under the technical guidance of Forest Research Institute, Dehradun. The 'Miyawaki' method (a Japanese Technique) for developing fast and dense forests of indigenous species has also been adopted in Kanaksinghpur PFFCS of Uttar Pradesh. Plantation of Dragon Fruits, Apple (Harman-99) in the tropical region and Custard apple (Balanagar) has been introduced in PFFCS areas on trial basis.

Out of the total 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nation's, this project addresses 5 SDGs.  The developed forests are sequestrating atmospheric carbon which helps in mitigating climate change, addressing SDG– 13 “Climate Action”. The forest-developed in waterlogged areas has now been developed into a bird sanctuary. Wild life and many new plant species and grasses have emerged in these forests, which are contributing to SDG – 15 “Life on Land”. These developments also contributes to the SDG – 1 “No Poverty” as the plantation activities generate employment for the rural community, which in turn generates income for their families. IFFDC is also undertaking fruit plantation under Agro-horti system, which noticeably increases nutritive food availability in the project area addressing thereby the SDG - 2 “Zero Hunger” and SDG -3 “Good Health & Well Being”.

PROJECT DETAILS

State	District	Total Covered Area (ha)	Total Existing Trees (Lakh)
Uttar Pradesh	Sultanpur, Raebareli, Prayagraj, Kaushambi	12,951	51.39
	Pratapgarh, Lucknow, Amethi, Unnao
Uttarakhand	Nainital, Champawat	207	0.87
Rajasthan	Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand	9,713	20.85
Madhya Pradesh	Sagar, Chhatarpur, Tikamgarh	6,550	35.44
	Total	29,421	108.55

New Initiatives in Social Forestry

(a) Agro-forestry System Development:

Indian Forests are helping in improving the livelihoods of about 3000 lakh people and are important for mitigating Climate Change. The Government of India has committed to UNFCCC an additional voluntary reduction of 2.5–3 billion tonnes of CO2 e by 2030 from its forestry sector. If all of India's open forests are taken up for restoration, only about 0.9 million tonnes of CO2e worth additional carbon sink can be created. The balance will need to be from Trees outside Forests (ToF). Agro-forestry is one of the best options for developing ToF. Therefore, it becomes imperative to focus on the potential of ToF. It is in this context of India's NDC commitment, IFFDC has undertaken the new initiative of developing agro-forestry on farmer fields. This not only helps in mitigating Climate Change but also helps in additional income generation to farmers. Besides contributing to NDC commitment, development of Agro-forestry also contributes toward the mission “Doubling Farmer's Income” of the Government of India.

The species planted under agro-forestry are of commercial use, fast growing and early maturing varieties. Such plant species selected for agro-forestry plantations are Melia composita (Burma Neem), Ailanthus excelsa (Maharukh) and Eucalyptus Clone etc. During the year, 0.88 lakh saplings have been planted on the fields of 114 farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

(b) Agri-Horti System Development

The Government of India is implementing the “National Horticulture Mission” (NHM) since 2004 aimed at ensuring nutritional security and income generation for farmers. To contribute to the objectives of the NHM and the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No. 1 "No Poverty" and (SDG) No. 2 "Zero Hunger", IFFDC has grafted the component of Agri-Horti system development to its existing Social Forestry and Climate Change portfolio.

IFFDC also has been generously providing financial and technical support to farmers to undertake plantation of fruit species on their arable land along with traditionally grown crops. The fruit species, such as Banana, Guava and others gives immediate returns to the farmers. During the year, about 1,275 saplings of Mango, Apple (Harman), Dragon fruit and Guava were planted. The encouraging results evidenced by adoption of Agri-Horti programmes has attracted more farmers to this system.

(c) Steps for Carbon Credits

Afforestation & Reforestation absorbs Carbon Di-oxide (CO2) and thus reduces the CO2 in the atmosphere. This reduction of CO2 can be used for off-setting the emission of CO2 mainly by industries in developed countries. Such reduction of CO2 from the atmosphere can be traded as Voluntary Emission Reduction (VER) and is in demand in developed countries particularly in the United States of America and Europe.

Recognizing the transformative potential of “Carbon Finance” to unlock new avenues for forest-dwelling and rural communities to monetise their outputs and enhance incomes as also incentivise continuous and accelerated action in forestry, IFFDC got registered a carbon credit project with VERRA Registry, Washington DC covering 189 ha plantation area developed during 2008 to 2013 in 11 PFFCS of Uttar Pradesh. To facilitate the carbon credit trading mechanism, M/s Emergent Venture India Pvt. Ltd. (EVI) were appointed as consultants for the preparation of the project proposal, development and facilitation of validation, verification of Afforestation/Reforestation Project and sale of carbon credits. The GPS Mapping of the forestry sites by M/S Science, Dehradun and VCS validation audit work by M/s Rainforest Alliance, Indonesia have been completed. Further, the verification audit of project has been duly completed by M/s Carbon Check (India) Pvt Ltd.

The carbon credit project was registered in April 2023 with VERRA resulting in 78000 carbon credits under Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) being issued in the month of May, 2023 for the period from 2008 to first quarter of 2022. Of these, 48,998 carbon credits have so far been sold on the international market, resulting in a revenue of Rs 7.68 crore. Of the total revenue so far generated, Rs 1.50 crore has ben shared among 11 forestry cooperatives and Rs 3 crore shared among 120 farmers on whose fields the accredited plantation was done.

Tri-party agreements on sharing the revenue from carbon credits, after deduction of the expenses on development of the carbon credit project including validation & verification audit fee, GPS Mapping. VERRA Fee etc. were signed between IFFDC, Forestry Cooperative and land owner member farmers. Out of the net revenue so generated, the Agreement specifies that 25% be shared with the concerned Forestry Cooperative Societies, 50% with the Land owner member farmers and 25% would be the share of IFFDC. This project will generate carbon credit revenue for all the three stakeholders for 30 years from 2008 to 2038.

This achievement of IFFDC's Carbon Credit pilot project have established an inspiring milestone, further bolstering its endeavours. IFFDC has since diligently devised and officially enlisted a second project with the VERRA Registry in Washington DC. The validation of the second project has been completed.

Progress

l       239 ha area (130 ha in Uttar Pradesh, 27 ha in Uttarakhand, 35 ha in Madhya Pradesh and 47 ha in Rajasthan) has been covered under plantation. 2.53 lakh plants (1.41 lakh in Uttar Pradesh, 0.26 lakh in Uttarakhand, 0.35 lakh in Madhya Pradesh, 0.51 lakh in Rajasthan) have been planted by different PFFCS. Major species include Melia (Burma Neem), Maharukh, Clonal Eucalyptus, Teak and Tejpatta etc. 6.34 lakh saplings of Neem have been supplied for plantation in different places of the country.

l       98 Annual General Body Meetings, 732 Executive Committee Meetings of different PFFCS have been organized. 3,220 meetings of SHG and 44 Meetings of PFFCS Secretaries were organized. Audit work of 111 PFFCS has been completed.

l       06 Health camps were organized, in which 320 patients were examined and free medicines were provided. 05 Veterinary camps were organized, in which 550 Cattle were examined and treated. 11 different important days i.e. Environment Day, Women Day, Farmers Day etc were celebrated.

l       For newly formed SHGs, 07 trainings on proper functioning & management for SHGs took places. Self Help Groups Members felt that the training has helped them in undertaking their roles and responsibilities in an efficient manner.

l       For Skill Development, one trainings of 20 days on “Block Printing” of Traditional designs on cloths has been completed in Intali PFFCS (Udaipur), with 10 women are being imparted the Block Printing training.

l       One training on “Record keeping & Accounting” for Secretaries was organised. The participants were imparted inputs on maintenance of various records/registers and book keeping etc.

l       For Skill Development, 01 training of 3 months on tailoring has been imparted to SHGs members in Nandmahar, PFFCS (U.P.) in which, 30 women participated.

Outcome

l       PFFCS are serving as nodal agencies for environment up-gradation and catering to the fuel wood, fodder and other needs of the community such as the supply of Agri-inputs.

l       Problematic lands (Sodic, Saline, Ravines and Water logged, etc) are now converted into cultivable lands and have proved to be productive assets.

l       Farm forestry activities have helped to bring ecological balance and bio-diversity conservation. The Carbon Credit Project is generating income for the farmers.

l       Farm Forestry Programme has resulted in additional employment opportunities being created through various farm forestry activities for local communities and has especially benefited the women of these communities.

l       Revolving Fund is helping to PFFCS as well as SHG members to establish micro-enterprises thereby generating livelihood options. The operationalised micro-enterprises are helping achieve the aim of doubling Farmer's incomes.

(d) Green Belt Development

IFFCO has awarded a Green Belt Development Project to IFFDC for increasing tree cover in the IFFCO Paradeep Plant area aimed at contributing towards combating climate change.    

The project area in the Paradeep plant is waterlogged, therefore, the plantation of Mangrove and other suitable species was taken up on heaps. Total 22,534 saplings of Neem, Karanj, Casurina, Mangrove and Acacia have been planted and maintenance activities i.e. Staking, Hoeing, Weeding and Irrigation etc. have also been undertaken. The growth of plantation in the 21- hectare waterlogged area is satisfactory.