Dehra Dun, Dec 18: Several countries which participated in the recently concluded Bali convention on climate change had appreciated India’s efforts to maintain and conserve forest carbon stocks in developing countries, said Jagdish Kishwan, Director General of Indian Council for Forestry and Research Education (ICFRE), who was part of the Indian delegation.
Speaking to reporters here, he said India’s “compensated conservation” had called for encouragement to those nations that are not only conserving and preserving the existing carbon stocks but also adding new forest cover that helps control the carbon emission, a major contributor to global warming.
“It was a major victory for India as the “Indian approach” garnered huge support from countries like China, Costa Rica, Thailand, Pakistan and Congo-basin nations and as it was also included in the preamble,” said Kishwan.
At the convention, India had claimed that it would increase its forest carbon stocks to 9.75 billion tonnes in 2030 from the present 8.79 billion tonnes as per the study carried out by the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc).
Kishwan explained that before the Bali convention, the talks were basically around the ‘Brazilian approach’ that advocates reducing emission from deforestation.
At Bali, even Brazil had to concede that the Indian approach on forest conservation must be given its due though Brazilian officials were not very forthcoming on the issue, Kishwan said.
