Objective

Stakeholders at national, regional, and local levels have derived ecological, socio-economic, governance, and climate change related benefits from Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR).

Context

Owing to socio-economic pressures, 43% of Indian forests are degraded and their ecosystem services (ES) diminished. The restoration potential is enormous (140 million ha); but despite an internationally rare upward trend in forest and tree cover, the latter remains far from the national target (33% of total land area), Bonn Challenge and NDC goals. Lack of capacities and tools at Forest departments and other line departments, as well as regulations on Trees Outside Forest (TOF), hinder the translation of policy goals into action. In four states, RECAP4NDC enables key actors to effectively plan, finance, implement and monitor Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) and TOF measures. By 2029, RECAP4NDC aims at achieving ecological, socio-economic, governance, and climate change benefits in 0.4 million ha of forest landscape, thereby capturing 12 MtCO2e over 10 years. About 10 million people will benefit from improved forest ES. Upscaling will lead to the restoration of 1.1 m ha and 110 mtCO2e in 10 years.

Approach including the target group

The project target groups are characterised into two main categories:

Public administrations and institutions at political and technical level:

• The political partner MoEFCC as well as cooperating other line ministries at national level benefit from strengthened cross-sector governance approaches as needed for FLR. This includes FLR concept development as well as planning, financing, and cooperation mechanisms.
• Beneficiaries at the state level include the Forest Departments as well as other cooperating line departments. Line departments like Agriculture, Horticulture and Rural Development, are important partners for promotion of agroforestry, development of value chains as well as for access to existing funding sources and upscaling FLR through agricultural extension services. The Climate Change Department and the Environment Department are important actors in communicating the project outcomes as part of the state and country’s contribution to climate action. The Tribal Development Department will be engaged because it is likely that forest-dwelling communities will be tribal communities. All departments will benefit from practice-oriented concepts and implementation experiences for FLR and from improved governance concepts for promoting FLR.
• District administration is an important level when it comes to concrete planning and convergence of funds for activities related to local development and resource management.
• Local corporations and boards include institutions like the Joint Forest Management Committees (JFMC), Biodiversity Management Committees, Forest Development Corporations, and Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK). They can provide valuable suggestions for forestry (including social forestry) activities which incorporate the local population’s needs.
• Civil Society Organisations and Self-Help-Groups play an important role to ensure that FLR activities benefit marginalized groups and reflect traditional and cultural knowledge.

Individual farmers as well as private sector and institutions

• FLR benefits include improvements of livelihood and socio-economic conditions as well as access to forest products, farmers, their families, and other rural population groups form a core target group of the project. These actors need to be engaged to understand their motivations and apprehensions in adopting agroforestry, and clear business cases will be established for their participation.
• Farmer Producer Organisations / Farmer Interest Groups / Self-Help Groups are community-based institutions involved in the aggregation of products (both agricultural and non-agricultural) for better market accessibility and influence. These institutions will be important actors in developing and implementing business models in the project and benefit from improved opportunities resulting from project activities.
• SME and industry players that use forest resources as raw materials for their products are potential partners. This includes actors from the paper and pulp, furniture, matchbox industry, etc. They will play an influential role in the uptake of business models supported by the project.

Highlight Activities

RECAP4NDC project activities are ongoing as per the following Work packages:

• Work Package 1: FLR and TOF models will be implemented in 1,50,000 ha in selected states in cooperation with relevant stakeholders.
• Work Package 2: Integrated system of monitoring, evaluation, and reporting of ecological and socio-economic benefits of FLR
• Work Package 3: Increased financing and private sector engagement, by leveraging more than 50 million EUR of public and private finance.
• Work Package 4: Institutionalisation of strategies, tools, and policy advice. State-level policy documents that recognize programme outputs report on policy recommendations on participatory FLR and TOF per state.
• Work Package 5: Capacity Development, Knowledge Management and communication. This includes activities like capacity development strategy per state, SFDs officials and, community members capacitated on Participatory FLR and TOF, development of an interactive platform for exchange for South-South exchange on FLR and its contribution on NDCs.