Ranchi, Oct 14 Jharkhand will soon draft a REDD+ action plan, one of the climate change mitigation options in the forestry sector, to secure results-based financial incentives, a senior forest official said.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Sanjiv Kumar held a high-level meeting with senior forest officials on Wednesday and discussed priorities for the state under REDD+.
REDD+ refers to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in developing countries. It is a climate change mitigation framework under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), through which developing countries can obtain results-based finance for verified reductions in forest-related greenhouse-gas emissions and enhancement of carbon stocks.
“We will soon draft a REDD+ action plan and implement it in Jharkhand. Four states, including Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Mizoram, have already prepared an action plan for the initiative to support implementation of the National REDD+ Strategy. It will be helpful in obtaining results-based finance and other social and environmental co-benefits for Jharkhand,” Kumar told PTI after the meeting.
He said Jharkhand’s forests are an important carbon reservoir.
“Jharkhand’s 2025–26 Economic Survey reports a total forest carbon stock of approximately 186.43 million tonnes in 2023, including above-ground biomass, below-ground biomass, deadwood, litter and soil organic carbon,” he said.
The REDD+ activities have potential interventions such as prevention of deforestation, forest degradation, forest-fire management, enrichment planting with native species, bamboo and mixed-species restoration, sustainable forest management, watershed and riparian restoration, biodiversity and wildlife-habitat conservation and community-based forest protection, the forest department said in a statement.
However, the initiative also poses several challenges, such as establishing credible forest reference levels and baselines, reliable measurement and verification of carbon stocks, monitoring forest degradation, addressing leakage and permanence risks, and developing transparent systems for carbon accounting and benefit sharing, it said.
(PTI News)
