The Mission is one of eight missions under India's National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). Its objective is to increase forest/tree cover on five million ha. of forested and non forested land, and improved quality of forest cover on another 5 million ha - a total of 10 million ha. The Mission will also focus on improvement of ecosystem services, including biodiversity, hydrological services and carbon sequestration, and aim to increase forest-based livelihood incomes for 3 million forest dependent families. In terms of carbon sequestration, the mission aims to reach an annual CO2 sequestration of 50 to 60 million tonnes by 2020, which will increase the share of green house gas (GHG) emissions offset by India's forest and tree cover to around 6 percent as compared to 4.5 percent that would have been offset in the absence of the Mission.
The base of the rift between the between the forest bureaucracy and the Union environment and forests minister is the control over the flow of an estimated Rs 46,000 crore over the next 10 years meant to afforest five million hectares as planned. Read the full report here.
Source: Climate Connect, New Delhi.
