- विज्ञापन -
New York : From 6th to 10th May India participated in the 19th Session of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF), held at the UN Headquarters in New York. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change informed in a press release.
India highlighted the country’s significant advancements in forest conservation and sustainable forest management, which led to a consistent increase in forest cover over the past fifteen years. Globally, India ranks third in the net gain area and in average annual forest area, between 2010 and 2020. Also for the past 10 years India is focusing on achieving 33.33% forest area.
India shared the high priority the country provides towards biodiversity and wildlife conservation, having expanded the network of protected areas to over a thousand wildlife sanctuaries, national parks, tiger reserves, biosphere reserves, and other wildlife habitats.
The recent celebrations marking 50 years of Project Tiger and 30 years of Project Elephant underscore India’s commitment to species conservation and habitat protection. As these programs significant a lot for India, they help in acheiving the forest area and biodiversity.
India also highlighted the creation of the International Big Cat Alliance, another important step aimed at protecting and conserving the seven big cat tiger, jagaur, leopard etc species around the world through collaborative international efforts.
India also shared the introduction of the ‘Green Credit Programme’, designed to incentivize entities to take up tree plantations and restore degraded forest lands, green climate which aims to further strengthen the climate action initiatives.
Previously, in October 2023, India hosted the Country led Initiative under UNFF at Dehradun, attended by representatives from 40 countries and 20 international organisations and held discussions on forest fire management and forest certification.
The recommendations from this initiative and past achievements were presented by India during UNFF 19.
The Ministry also hosted a side event on ‘Principles and Strategies for Landscape Integrated Fire Management through Collaborative Governance’ in partnership with the Agency for Integrated Rural Fire Management, Portugal, the Korea Forest Service, and the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) at UNFF 19 in New York.
The UNFF 19 culminated in a declaration to take urgent and accelerated actions to halt deforestation and forest degradation and to prevent land degradation, including the implementation of the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests and the achievement of the Global Forest Goals.
The Indian delegation was led by Jitendra Kumar, Director General of Forests and Special Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India.
