Bonn Challenge: 100ha forest land in Wadsa to be restored

Nagpur: The Maharashtra Forest Department (MFD) plans to restore around 100 hectares of degraded forest land in Wadsa division in Gadchiroli district under forest land restoration (FLR) project launched by the MoEFCC under the Bonn Challenge pledge.
Talking to TOI, Shailesh Tembhurnikar, PCCF & CEO of Maha-CAMPA, informed the Bonn Challenge is a global effort that was launched in 2011 to bring 150 million hectares (MHA) of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020 and 350 MHA by 2030. This will also support India’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under climate change commitments to achieve an additional carbon sink of 2.5-3.0 billion tonnes.
“The government of India is a signatory to the Bonn Challenge by pledging to restore 13 MHA of degraded land by 2020 and 21 MHA by 2030 in India. Maharashtra is among the five states to implement the project, other states being Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Nagaland,” said Tembhurnikar.
The PCCF added, “In the last decade, Maharashtra has restored 1.83 MHA and stands third in the country after MP and Odisha in forest land restoration. FLR is not just tree plantation but involves integration of entire landscape by taking up a gamut of activities like grassland development, checking soil erosion, natural regeneration, surface water restoration among a host of other things.”
A three-day workshop will begin at Chandrapur Forest Academy on Wednesday to deliberate on how to implement the project. IUCN is monitoring the project called ‘Enhanced capacity building of stakeholders and state governments on FLR and reporting mechanism on Bonn Challenge’. FLR approach is the underlying approach of Bonn Challenge pledge.
Under the project, IUCN is supporting MoEFCC in collating the FLR-related data from all states and Union territories for the government reporting to Bonn Challenge.
Five states — Haryana, Karnataka, MP, Maharashtra, and Nagaland — were identified for carrying out Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM) assessment, capacity building of relevant line departments on FLR, and a pilot study.
Chandrapur Forest Academy director MS Reddy said 35 forest officials will be part of the stakeholders’ workshop which will be inaugurated by forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar. Principal secretary (forest) B Venugopal Reddy and others will remain present. Well-known experts and scientists will guide the participants.