A meeting was held at Gram Panchayat Bangsil under the National Mission for a Green India which was presided by Sarita Gaudh, Pradhan of the Panchayat. Forest Officer Komal Singh apprised the villagers about the Green India Mission. He said that the first draft of the Mission, the sixth out of the eight priority national missions was submitted to the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change.
This eight priority national missions are the central focus of the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), for sustaining India’s growth and development. NAPCC ha in particular cautioned that the forestry sector will be very climate-sensitive, and planning for its protection may pose a major threat to livelihood of people in general, and forest dependent communities in particular.
Hence, responding to the sensitivity of this sector, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) had said that firstly it proposes a fundamental shift in the mindset from our traditional focus on increasing the quantity of forest cover, towards increasing its quality and improving provision of ecosystem services. Secondly, the mission proposes to take a holistic view of greening and not merely focusing on plantations to meet carbon sequestration targets. There is a clear emphasis on enhancing biodiversity, restoring ecosystems, and habitat diversity in the mission document with focus on autonomy and decentralization of the mission.
Local communities will be at the heart of implementation, with the Gram Sabhas as the overarching institution overseeing mission activities at the village-level. Such an open minded approach to an issue as delicate and complex as our fragile forest ecosystem is surely an indication of positive results of the mission’s working.
Committed to involve local people, and enhancing their livelihood, a major step proposed to be taken up in the draft mission is to engage a cadre of young ‘Community Foresters’, most of whom will be from scheduled tribes and other forest dwelling communities, to facilitate planning, implementation and monitoring of activities at the local level.
The mission will identify, research, priorities in support of its aims and objectives. It will also set up a cell under the overall guidance of MoEF to link Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) and REDD Plus activities in the country. The mission strategies will be implemented through a set of five sub missions and cross-cutting interventions.
