COMPENSATORY AFFORESTATION FUND - ENVIRONMENT

News: Compensatory afforestation neither compensates nor forest: 60% funds unused

 

What is in the news?

       The study reveals that 60% of the funds were unused in the Compensatory afforestation fund scheme.

 

Compensatory Afforestation:

       Compensatory afforestation means that every time forest land is diverted for non-forest purposes such as mining or industry, the user agency pays for planting forests over an equal area of non-forest land, or when such land is not available, twice the area of degraded forest land.

 

Compensatory Afforestation Programme:

       Adhoc CAMPA was established following the Supreme Court’s Order (T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad Vs Union of India case) in 2006 to manage the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF).

       Compensatory afforestation is the most ambitious and the most resource rich, financially.

       The Compensatory afforestation programme began on 10.29 lakh hectares of land in total against the diversion of 11.38 lakh hectares of forest land for non-forest purposes.

 

Objectives of CAMPA Scheme:

       To encourage afforestation and development projects to make up for forest land that will be used for non-forest purposes.

       Establishing effective rules for the State.

       To make it easier to provide any support that may be requested by the organization in charge of the State CAMPA in terms of science, technology, and other requirements.

       To make recommendations for actions to the State CAMPA authorities based on strategic planning.

       To settle disputes that arise between states or between states and the center.

 

Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act,2016:

       This act was enacted in 2016.

       Under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Act, 2016, project developers, government or private, are obliged to pay a compensation amount, and various other fees, if the project involves diversion of forest land.

       It establishes the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of India, and a State Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of each state.

       Payments will be made to these Funds for:

       Compensatory afforestation,

       Net present value of forest (NPV),

       Additional project-specific payments.

       As per the rules, 90% of the CAF money is to be given to the states while 10% is to be retained by the Centre.

       This money can be used only for afforestation, or related, purposes. Since 2016, when the law was enacted, more than Rs 66,000 crore has been collected in a national fund.

       The CAF Act was enacted to manage the funds collected for compensatory afforestation which till then was managed by ad hoc Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA).

 

Use of funds:

       The funds can be used for the treatment of catchment areas, assisted natural generation, forest management, wildlife protection and management, relocation of villages from protected areas, managing human-wildlife conflicts, training and awareness generation, supply of wood saving devices, and allied activities.

 

Less utilization of funds:

       Official records show that about Rs 55,000 crore has already been transferred to the state governments in the last five years, to be utilized for plantations which can grow to become forests after a few years.

       However, only Rs 22,466 crore, just about 40 percent of this amount, had been allocated for afforestation works. The rest of the money is sitting idle in state government accounts.

 

Importance of CAMPA scheme:

       It is a crucial tool towards achieving India’s commitment to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5-3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by the year 2030.

 

Issues:

1. Underutilization of funds:

       The Supreme Court observed in 2002 that collected funds for afforestation were underutilized by the states and ordered that fund be pooled centrally under an ad hoc Compensatory Afforestation Fund.

       Around 55,000crore has been allocated to the states, but only 40% of the allocated funds were utilized by the states.

2. No time frame for creating compensatory forests:

       According to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests report, CAF Act 2016 has no time frame for creating compensatory forests, and is highly bureaucratic in operations.

3. Low quality alternative land allocation:

       Key challenge is mainly the quality of land over which plantations are being grown.

4. Non contagiousness of forests:

       Unlike the diverted forest, land for compensatory afforestation is not contiguous but spread over different locations.

5. High biotic pressure:

       The plantation sites are often also high biotic pressure areas, meaning nearby human habitations or cattle use it for their own purposes.

6. Encroachment of Tribal lands:

       There are instances where the forest department has done compensatory afforestation on lands that belonged to tribals and forest-dwellers.

       This has happened despite guidelines that compensatory afforestation has to be aligned with the Forest Rights Act which grants tribals and other forest-dwellers legal ownership rights over the land they live and use for livelihood purposes.

7. Plantation of Non-native species:

       In several places, the loss of natural species is compensated for by the planting of non-native species under the guise of artificial plantation. It poses a threat to the existing ecosystem.

 

Other afforestation programmes:

1. National Mission for a Green India:

       It is one of the eight Missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change.

       It aims at protecting, restoring and enhancing India’s forest cover and responding to Climate Change.

2. Namami Gange Programme:

       It is an Integrated Conservation Mission, approved as ‘Flagship Programme’ by the Union Government in June 2014 with budget outlay of Rs.20,000 Crore to accomplish the twin objectives of effective abatement of pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of National River Ganga.

3. National Afforestation Programme (NAP) Scheme:

       The objective of this scheme is ecological restoration of degraded forests and to develop the forest resources with peoples participation, with focus on improvement in livelihoods of the forest-fringe communities, especially the poor.

4. National Forest Policy (NFP), 1988:

       It encourages plantation of trees alongside roads, railway lines, rivers, streams, canals etc. under social forestry.