SUBHASH MISHRA
Ranchi, Sept 23: The Department of Forests, Environment and Climate Change, Government of Jharkhand has set up a Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) cell under the chairmanship of Principal Chief Conservator of forest ( PCCF) Sanjay Srivastava.
Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Sanjiv Kumar has been made nodal officer of the cell.
The PCCF Wildlife, WLDB director, Dr Anshumani (IIT ISM Dhanbad), Prof N.K.Srivastava ( CIMFR, Dhanbad) and Sunil Pande of UNDP have been selected as members.
A forest department official said that REDD+ is one of the climate change mitigation options in developing countries for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, conservation of forests, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
Under decisions of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), each nation (and its state) has to create a REDD+ cell in the Forest Department.
While presiding the first meeting of Cell in Friday, chairman Sanjay Srivastava ( PCCF) focused on the preparation of State REDD+ Action plan and capacity building of stakeholders.” Workshops will be organized very soon,” he added.
Nodal officer Sanjiv Kumar (APCCF, CAMPA) introduced the subject and explained the way forward for the Action Plan. Dr V.R.S. Rawat from ICFRE, Dehradun presented in details about REDD+ concept. All members shared their views.
Nodal officer Sanjiv Kumar said that main issues which were discussed at the first meeting on preparation of REDD+ State Action Plan. “The Action Plan will impress upon to develop a road map in consultation with stakeholders including local communities for addressing drivers of deforestation, forest degradation and safeguards for implementation of REDD+ activities,” he said.
The members also held a discussion on preparation of reference emission level/ forest monitoring system and safeguard information system (SIS).
At the meeting, the members discussed over REDD+ preparation and implementation, Community Forestry Groups, Van Panchayats/Village Forest Protection Committees and REDD+ learning/knowledge sharing platform for exchange and sharing of knowledge, explore the possibilities of REDD+ financing, development of REDD+ projects and facilitate REDD+ benefit sharing mechanism, arranging technical and institutional supports for implementation of REDD+.
