Centre tweaks Green Credit Programme norms; to focus on restoration of ecosystem

Amid concerns that the Green Credit Programme (GCP), which encourages organisations and individuals to invest in a«orestation project in ‘degraded’ forest lands for ‘green credits,’ may encourage tree planting for nancial gains, the Union Environment Ministry — the overall coordinator of the programme — has claried that primacy must be accorded to restoring ecosystems over merely tree planting.

So far, The Hindu has learnt, forest departments of 13 States have o«ered 387 land parcels of degraded forest land — worth nearly 10,983 hectares. Individuals and companies can apply to Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), an autonomous body of the Environment Ministry, to pay to “restore” these forests. The actual a«orestation will be carried out by State forest departments.

Two years after planting and following an evaluation by the ICFRE, each such planted tree could be worth one ‘green credit’. These credits can be claimed by the nancing organisation and used in two ways: either using it to complying with existing forest laws that require organisations, which divert forest land for non-forestry purposes, to recompense by providing an equivalent amount of land elsewhere. Or be used for reporting under environmental, social and governance leadership norms or to meet corporate social responsibility (CSR) requirements.

Parties can apply to ‘restore’ forests, and the actual a orestation will be carried out by State Forest departments