Table of Contents
Green Credit scheme
- Forest Advisory Committee has approved the implementation of Green Credit scheme
- It allows “forests” to be traded as a commodity.
- It allows the Forest Department to outsource one of its responsibilities of reforesting to non-government agencies
- The scheme allows agencies —they could be private companies, village forest communities —to identify land and begin growing plantations
- After three years, they would be eligible to be considered as compensatory forest land.
- An industry needing forest land could then approach the agency and pay it for parcels of such forested land, and this would then be transferred to the Forest Department and be recorded as forest land
- In 2015, a ‘Green Credit Scheme’ for degraded forest land with public-private participation was recommended, but it was not approved by the Union Environment Minister, the final authority
NamamiGangeProgramme
- It is an umbrella programme which integrates previous and currently ongoing initiatives with more comprehensive & better coordinated interventions.
- Implemented by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), and its state counterparts—State Programme Management Groups.
Q) Which of the following dignitaries head the National Ganga Council (NGC)?
(a)Prime Minister
(b)Home Minister
(c)Union minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
(d)Ex-Chief Justice of India
National Ganga Council (NGC)
- Created in October 2016 under the River Ganga (Rejuvenation, Protection and Management) Authorities Order, 2016, dissolving the National Ganga River Basin Authority.
- Headed by the Prime Minister.
- NGC would have on board the chief ministers of five Ganga basin states—Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh (UP), Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal—besides several Union ministers and it was supposed to meet once every year
Q) Which of the following ministries has decided to set up ‘Sustainable Development Cell’?
(a)Ministry of Coal
(b)Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
(c)Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
(d)Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs
Sustainable Development Cell for Environmental Mitigation Measures
- The Ministry of Coal has decided to establish a ‘Sustainable Development Cell’
- To promote environmentally sustainable coal mining in the country and address environmental concerns during the decommissioning or closure of mines.
Q) ‘Green wall of India’ will stretch from Delhi to which of the following states?
(a)Gujarat
(b)West Bengal
(c)Uttar Pradesh
(d)Jharkhand
‘Green wall’ of India
- The Centre is mulling an ambitious plan to create a green wall on NorthWesternpart of India
- It will be a 1,400km long and 5km wide green belt from Gujarat to the Delhi-Haryana border, on the lines of the “Great Green Wall” running through the width of Africa, from Dakar(Senegal) to Djibouti, to combat climate change and desertification.
- If approved, this may turn out to be a legacy programme in India’s efforts to deal with land degradation and the eastward march of the Thar desert.
Kerala’s ban on CFL and filament bulbs from November 2020
- This is in line with the government project of ‘Filament-free Kerala’ envisaged in 2018 as part of the state’s UrjaKerala mission.
LED vs CFL
- The CFL uses mercury vapourwhich is dangerousfor the environment and living beings.
- The destruction of the LED is easierthan the CFL because LED does not have any harmful metal which pollutes the environment
- The brightness of LED is moreas compared to CFL because LED emits light only in one direction.
- The LED saves up to 80 percent of the electricity billeven though their cost is very less.
- It is recyclable, and their brightness remains same even after using it for a long time.
Protected Special Agricultural Zone’ (PSAZ)
- Tamil Nadu CM declares Cauvery Delta as Protected Special Agriculture Zone. A law in this regard will be enacted soon.
- PSAZ is aimed at protecting the Cauvery delta region for the future, fulfilling TN’s food requirements and ensuring the welfare of delta farmers
- It has recognised farmer concerns about hydrocarbon exploration and accorded primacy to food security
Jalyuktashivar
- Maharashtra government has scrapped the Jalyukta Shivar-the flagship water conservation project
- Launched in December 2014 after Maharashtra experienced consecutive droughts
- Aimed at rolling out measures that could potentially mitigate water scarcity in the most drought-prone villages in a systematic manner
- The project targeted strengthening and streamlining existing water resources like canals, bunds and ponds by arresting maximum run-off rainwater during monsoon.
India’s Cooling Action Plan (ICAP)
- India’s Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) has received appreciation from the UN on World Ozone Day
India is the first country in world to develop such a document
Forest-PLUS 2.0
- US Agency for International Development (USAID) and India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) have launched Forest-PLUS 2.0
- Forest-PLUS 2.0 is a five-year programme initiated in December 2018 that focuses on developing tools and techniques to bolster ecosystem management and harnessing ecosystem services in forest landscape management.
- Forest-PLUS 2.0 comprises pilot project in three landscapes —Gayain Bihar, Thiruvananthapuramin Kerala and Medakin Telangana.
- The choice of these sites was driven by the contrast in their landscapes –
- Biharis a forest deficit area,
- Telanganais a relatively drier area where there is ample scope for community livelihood enhancement and
- Keralais rich in biodiversity.
Forest-Plus (September 2017)
- The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has launched “Wood is Good” Campaign under Partnership for Land Use Science.
- To strengthen capacity for REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) implementation in India.
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) Himalayan programme
- The Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programme being carried out in the himalayan states jointly by Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) and International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) has been extended till July 2020.
- ICFRE-ICIMOD’s REDD+ programme was launched in January 2016 to address the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in India’s Himalayan states
Emission Trading Scheme (ETS)
- Gujarat has launched India’s first trading programme to combat particulate air pollution through the emission trading scheme (ETS), on World Environment Day 2019, which has air pollution as its theme.
- It is a market-based system where the government sets a cap on emissions and allows industries to buy and sell permits to stay below the cap.
- Being initiated in Surat by the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB).
- Gujarat programme is the first in the world to regulate particulate air pollution.
Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) and Bonn Challenge
- The centre has launched a flagship project on enhancing capacity on forest landscape restoration (FLR) and Bonn Challenge in India, through a pilot phase of 3.5 years implemented in the States of Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland and Karnataka.
- At the UNFCC Conference of the Parties (COP) 2015 in Paris, India also joined the voluntary Bonn Challenge pledge to bring into restoration 13 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by the year 2020, and additional 8 million hectares by 2030.
- India’s pledge is one of the largest in Asia.
What is Bonn Challenge?
- The Bonn Challenge is a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030.
- Underlying the Bonn Challenge is the forest landscape restoration (FLR) approach, which aims to restore ecological integrity at the same time as improving human well-being through multifunctional landscapes.
What is FLR?
- Forest landscape restoration (FLR) is the on-going process of regaining ecological functionality and enhancing human well-being across deforested or degraded forest landscapes.
- FLR is more than just planting trees –it is restoring a whole landscape to meet present and future needs.
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