Aravalli Green Wall Initiative: India's Landscape Ecological Restoration Programme for Climate Resilience and Inclusive Growth (UNFF Side Event)

So I think we should start.
Distinguished delegates, Excellencies, honored guests and colleagues joining us here in the room and online from across the world.
A very warm welcome to all of you.
My name is Ana Roni.
I'm fellow at the Energy and Resources Institute based out in New Delhi and I have the honor of serving you as a compare for this afternoon.
We are here at a particularly meaningful moment, the 21st session of the United Nations Forum on Forest, a global platform that has long championed our collective commitments to forest landscapes and the communities that depend on them.
It is from this spirit that India brings to you today the story of the Arawali Green Wall Initiative, a story of one of the world's oldest mountain ranges of a landscape under stress and of a nation's determined effort to restore it.
To formally open our session, I now invite doctor Dipanka Saharia to share his welcome remarks.
Doctor Sahia, who is currently the Senior Director of TEI, has been formerly a member of Assam Civil Services.
His expertise lies in the areas of biotechnology, natural resource management, and rural development.
Doctor Sahaia, the floor is yours.
Thank you.
Distinguished delegates, senior officials from Permanent Mission to India, representative from intergovernmental governmental organizations, civil society, and dear friend joining us both in person and online.
On behalf of the Ministry of Environment, Forest, Climate Change, Government of India, and the Energy and Resources Institute, I extend a warm welcome to all of you to the site event, Ravi Green Wall Initiatives, India's andscape Ecological Restoration Program for climate resilience and inclusive growth at the 21st session of the United Nations Forum on Forests.
It is a privilege together with such a distinguished group of policymakers, researchers, development partners, and community leaders all united by the shared commitment to protecting and restoring forests and landscapes.
I would like to express my sincere appreciation to our esteemed speakers today, Shiri A Raghu Prasa, Inspector General of Forest, Ministry of Environment and Forest Government of India, Shmesh umar Pandeh, additional Director General of Forest, Ministry of Environment Forest Government of India, doctor Javi Sharma, Senior Director of the Energy and Resources Institute, Shrima Shikha Mera, principal, Chief Conservator of Forest, Ristan Forest Department, India, Mr.
Kundan Bernal from ZZ, India, and my colleague Sri Air Roone from Terry, we are grateful for your presence and your continued commitment to ecological restoration and sustainable development.
All distingued participants, in context of the United Nations Forum on Forests remains an important platform for strengthening international cooperation and advancing sustainable forest management.
In this spirit that India is pleased to present the Rawi Green One Initiative, a large scale science based ecological restoration program focused on Aravy Range, one of the oldest mountain systems in the world.
The Ry landscape today faces increasing pressure from land degradation, desertification, rapid urbanization, and declining groundwater levels and climate variability.
Recognizing the ecological importance of the region, the government of India has initiated a comprehensive restoration effort aimed at strengthening ecosystem resilience while improving the livelihood of local communities.
One of the most significant aspect of this initiative is its convergence based framework.
It brings together the ministry, the state government, the local communities, and the research institution under a shared vision of restoration and resilience.
Today's session seeks to highlight how integrated landscape restoration can contribute simultaneously to climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, land restoration, and sustainable development goals.
India remains committed to strengthening partnership, sharing knowledge, and contribute actively to global efforts on forest landscape restoration and sustainable land management.
With these words, I once again welcome you all and wish the session every success.
Welcome once again.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much, sir.
Moving on, the Arab L Green Wall at its core is a story of governance and convergence and there is no one better place to tell it than our next speaker.
I invite Shia Ragu Prasad, Inspector General of Forest from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change government of India to present his presentation.
Shrirau Prasad is a national focal point of U NFF from India and has more than 25 years of experience in the field of environmental management and conservation.
He's responsible for overseeing the implementation of various environmental laws and policies in the country.
So we look forward to your address.
Thank you, Ana.
The officials from the PMI are, my team from Terry, all the participants have joined online from various parts from both from India and elsewhere.
A warm welcome once again.
We are hosting this event probably in the last day of UNF.
We've the one week session is already over, but still it's been a privilege to host this in the sidelines of the UNFF.
Just wanted to give you a broad overview on how uh uh, the India's journey for landscape restoration, has been over a period of time.
So just to give a broad overview, I just put this slide to showcase, we have a target of almost putting around 33 percentage of India's land mass under forest and tree cover.
Currently, we are somewhere around 25.17 percentage, approximately around 82 million hectares is a forest cover.
We have been gaining continuously the cover over the last two, three decades.
In fact, as per the FAO the global forest assessment reports, we are the third in terms of putting in net annual gain for almost over the last two decades.
We also have a huge area which is degraded.
In fact, the government of India has brought out the land degradation atlas, which showcase approximately 96 million hectres of land under various stages of degradation, whether it's lands, Saline lands and in various levels of degradation, and some of those areas are also increasing.
In fact, 2011-1919, there has been approximately 1.45 million hectres of land, which is added during this period next.
As I said earlier, the national forest policy, we have an aim to achieve around one third of India's the terrestrial land area under the under the bond challenge, if you all recall, we have a target of a pledge of around 26 million hectares of degraded lands to be restored and we are very proud to see that by now we have already put in around 22.5 million actres of land, restored under this particular pledge.
We have also now enhanced the NDCs, the nationally determined contribution for carbon sequestration 52 to 3 billion tons.
We have recently enhanced it to 3.5 to 4 billion tons of C equivalent by 2035 and we have already from the base here, we have already put in almost around 2.529 billion tons of C two equivalent.
And so do we have also commitments both under the GBF, the equipment Montrell global biodiversity framework.
We are also party to that and we have almost around 27 percentage area under the terrestrial landscapes being restored under the 30 30 targets next.
We have huge programs, major programs on pestration.
In fact, India has a large land mass.
We have varied landscapes, diverse landscapes.
So some of the flagships programs like the Green India Mission, it's spread across all states, both in forest landscapes and in non forest landscapes, and even in agroforestry.
We have a huge commitment on mangroves.
In fact, the government of India, under the leadership of the Unable Prime Minister, we have rolled out the initiative on mangroves.
We have a commitment of almost around 540 square kilometers of mangroves covering both states and also the island archipelago of Andaman and the Laksha deeps.
So we have a huge interest in mangroves, especially for restoration of those areas.
And we provide a lot of funding under the compensatory afforestation program, which we call it as KMA.
We have a huge budgets lined up for restoration across states.
A few years back, the government of India has also rolled out a major rejnation for the 13 major rivers across the country, both in terms of its catchment areas, its basins.
As it covers 45% of India's land mass.
So that's a major program which the government of India has rolled out next.
Recently, we have taken up an initiative to access private finance for restoration of degraded land areas, especially degraded forest lands.
The green Credit program was rolled out by the Prime Minister during the climate cop and wherein private entities and public entities can come in and restore degraded forest lands, and then they can earn green credit and it can be swapped for various other environmental uh, benefits for those entities.
And the Arabi Greenwall of course, is one program which we are actually talking today, which we will go into the details.
A huge people centric program called the Platform, egg paid mark this has been a huge success in India.
We have almost put in 2.6 billion seedlings planted, and this is not funded by the government, it is actually people oriented, people centric, on the philosophy of, you know, you plant a tree on the name of your mother You nurture that over your lifetime, so that tree is taken care of.
It's a good citizen centric program which we just been rolled out by the government of India next.
In terms of sustainable forest management, because it is actually on the sidelines of the UNF, in fact, India has a huge commitment on sustained forest management.
We have been over the last 100 years managing forests through scientific means, but there has been a lot of transition from where the the working of the forests came uh, the initial, uh, areas were all exploitative forestry and after independence, we've come to, both for timber production and also for conservation, and the national forest policy, uh, which was lastly brought out in 1988, uh, it actually gives a lot of emphasis on conservation and on participatory management of these areas through local forest, uh, through local communities.
Also bring out scientific codes for managing these forests and the government of India or periodically brings out the national working plan codes which are mandated for each and every state so that these forest lands are worked on a scientific and sustainable manner next.
Once we come to talk about restoration of degraded lands, and it's not really degraded forestland, it's degraded lands across both in forest areas, non forest areas, agricultural lands, wastelands, grasslands, a lot of convergence happens, a lot of ministries, a lot of departments, a lot of state governments do take up a lot of programs on a variety of schemes for tackling this next.
I think we'll go forward next.
Just come back.
In fact, communities is very central to any of these restoration programs.
The success of these programs lies with the involvement of local communities.
In fact, in forest areas, we have the joint forest management committees who work alongside the forest department.
In managing and the benefits are also going back to these communities.
The government of India had also brought out the Forest Rights Act wherein local communities and tribal communities, they do have rights over the produce which are sustainably harvested next.
Now, coming to the project at hand, that is Arabi Greenwall or the Ara Greenwall project which has been recently launched by Government of India.
We come to this program.
In fact, Arabi mountains are important because it's one of the one of the oldest mountain ranges.
It is actually a natural ecological barrier between the Tar desert and the plains of India.
So that the it's actually a natural barrier for preventing the sand dunes or the sandstorms from coming into the plains, the fertile plains of India.
It's actually a natural barrier to prevent the spread of desertification into the plains of India.
And this is a rich biodiversity.
In fact, if you see some of the most important protected areas in the country, whether it's Rnambo Tiger reserve, whether it is the S Sky landscape, uh, all these areas are actually part of the Arawi landscape.
So it's of high biodiversity importance, not only in terms of an ecological, sand, desertification point of view, but it's also high in terms of biodiversity, and there are and it's a catchment for many of the rivers and seasonal streams.
So it's of high importance that these areas are actually conserved, restored, uh, uh, for multiple uses in these regions.
And if you see the spread spread of these areas, it is actually spread across four states starting from Gujarat all the way to Delhi and almost around 29 districts covering approximately around 6.45 million hectares next.
In fact, when we rolled out the project in what was the objectives, as I mentioned earlier, this actually acts as a natural barrier or an ecological barrier for the sand and the dust storms coming into basically in the NCR region, the national capital region covering many of these city areas.
And of course, for biodiversity conservation, and our main objective was to restore those degraded areas.
In doing that, there are also multiple benefits of socioeconomic benefits, going into a range of communities in these regions next.
This is just the geographical location of those areas.
It's on the northwestern part of India.
On the left where do you see the state of Rajasthan and to the spread comes from all the way from the northeast of Gujarat to all the way to Delhi, approximately around 700 kilometers, probably.
That's that's the length of that area.
Next.
Uh, now, the key intervention in those areas are because a lot of those areas are forested, deciduous areas, and so we don't have to do a lot of cost effective mechanisms are already there.
If you assist and protect the natural regeneration, then the area bounces back.
So in terms of a fundamental or traditional forestry activities, assisting natural regeneration is a key so that native species comes back.
Wherever there are potential for gap filling, gap ations both for deforestation and reforestation, areas have been set aside.
Soil and water conservation measures is a very fundamental land, uh, main component, a critical component of that, so that you know and a lot of areas are also set aside because these are multi use community use areas.
As have also been set aside for both for Sylva pastoral and for grassland development.
Next.
It's a phased plan.
We have put in a nine years project cycle, spread across and these areas will be worked through convergence of a lot of programs and schemes, both by government of India, by the state governments and through multiple departments and ministries.
Next.
So in the end, we hope to have both in terms of water security, food security, uh, in terms of protecting those landscapes, and of course, going back and enhancing livelihoods.
Agri forestry is also a good part of this initiative next.
So we have put in a detailed DPR and the states are working on this.
I think we also have a presentation today from the state of Rajasthan, which has almost around 80% of landscapes faults in Rajasthan.
So I think we'll be glad to hear that from Rajasthan on those.
So thank you very much for your attention.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Pande Shia has around 30 years of experience in the field of policymaking, forest management, wildlife conservation, protected area management, and environmental governance.
He's currently serving as the additional Director General of Forest and Director of wildlife preservation in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change government of India.
I'll just play the video message.
Distinguished delegates, my fellow panelists, ladies and gentlemen.
It's a privilege for me to address this side event during UNFF 21 on a subject that is central to our collective environmental future, eco restoration and halting land degradation.
India's total forest and tree cover today stands at approximately 82 million hectares, which constitute 25.17% of our geographical area.
According to global assessment, India recorded the third highest net gain in forest area globally during the decade 2010-2020.
At the same time, we recognize the magnitude of the challenge before us of protecting them from the threat of degradation.
This dual reality of progress and persistent challenge shapes India's restoration strategy.
India firmly believes that restoration is not merely an environmental activity.
It is intrinsically linked with climate action, biodiversity conservation, water security, livelihood enhancement, and sustainable development.
Accordingly, our approach is comprehensive, landscape based, and community driven.
At the national level, India's national forest policy envisages bringing one third of the country's geographical area under forest and tree cover.
We have already achieved 25.17% of total geographical area under forest and tree cover, which shows our continued efforts and study movement to achieve the one third of the total geographical area of the country.
If you look at the commitment of the countries towards the multilateral environmental agreements, I would first mention the commitment of the country given for the bond challenge.
Here, the country had decided to halt the restoration and to restore degraded forest land to the tune of 26 million hectares, out of which the country has already achieved 22.5 million hectares by now.
Similarly, India is also aligned with the land degradation neutrality targets under sustainable development goal, 15.3, and with the targets under the Coming Montreal Global biosity Framework, including restoration of degraded terrestrial ecosystem.
Under the Paris Agreement, India has recently enhanced its climate ambition from the earlier target of creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tons of C two equivalent by 2030.
India has now scaled up the target of an additional carbon sink of 3.5 to 4 billion tons of CO two equivalent by 2035.
We have already achieved sequestration of nearly 2.29 billion tons.
Distinguished delegates, India's restoration strategy is implemented through multiple flagship programs which are run across the country.
I would like to elaborate them one by one.
The first and foremost program, which is a flagship program in the country is known as Green India Mission, which seeks to increase forest and tree cover while improving ecosystem services and bios decoloration.
Another very unique regime which country runs is the compensatory afforestation.
That is carried out when a forest land is diverted for non forestry purposes.
That also helps the ecological restoration and maintaining the ecological balance, particularly when forest land is given for any developmental activities.
A very interesting program to ensure halting degradation and improving the quality of coastal area has been started in the country, which is known as Mystic.
That is mangroves Initiative for sustainable habitat and tangible ink.
This program is supporting restoration of coastal areas, and also looking into the blue carbon ecosystem and coastal resilience.
We have another short video message from doctor Javi Sharma, who will share his perspective on the need for Ravali restoration program.
Doctor Sharma is an E Indian forest Officer service officer with more than 40 years of experience on forest management, climate change, and policymaking.
He's currently also the Senior Director at Terry.
It is my privilege to introduce you all today's theme, the Arawi Green Wall Initiative, India's landscape ecological restoration program designed to advance climate resilience and inclusive green growth.
The Arawi Ranges is one of the oldest mountain belt in India.
Its origin can be traced back to approximately 2.5 billion years.
It is among India's most ecological significant dry land systems, stretching about 690 2 kilometers across Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haya, and the national capital territory of Gali.
It functions as a critical ecological barrier against desertification while supporting groundwater recharge, microclimate regulation, and biodiassity across northwestern India.
The Arabis face sustained pressure from land degradation, rapid urbanization, fragmentation, unsustainable extraction, and increasing climate variability.
These pressures direct threaten ecosystem services essential for water security, soil stability, human well being, particularly in densely populated peri urban and semi arid regions.
India's Arabi green world initiative is being positioned as a restoration model for precisely this dryland contributes to India's national commitment, particularly the goals of the 26 million hectare of degraded land degradation neutrality and carbon sink sequestration by 3.5 to 4 billion tons of the equivalent carbon dioxide.
At the heart of the approach is the principle that restoration is more than plantation matrix.
Ecological restoration is most durable when communities are not just beneficiaries but active stewards.
I would like to invite doctor De Pansia back to the floor to speak on community based conservation approaches for livelihood and landscape restoration.
I load the presentation.
I misspoke.
Thank you.
Thank you, underth.
So as already been, you know, described by Mr.
Ragu Prasad regarding the the importance of community based conservation in any of the forestry related projects.
The success depends on the community.
The subject of community based conservation for livelihood and landscape restoration is one of the primary subject of great importance for taking forward any project in the future.
So as this I did not describe, as Araali is the oldest mounted range, and critical for India's northwestern part of the support that it provides for the ecological barrier against the desertification and land degradation.
But there is growing pressure from mining, from deforestation, and unsustainable land use.
This is where the community comes in because they are directly the people that gets impacted by this degradation.
So what is basically the community it matters because the main challenges are the community that faces in that particular entire landscape and why the key challenges are land degradation, increasing climate vulnerability, declining soil fertility and groundwater depletion, livelihood insecurity, and the conflict of human wildlife that has been increasing day by day.
So all these are the key challenges, and that's where the community comes in.
And the community are actually helping us to achieve the goal of India's national priorities.
That is why the community role is so important.
What are the strategic pillars of community centric implementation model? So basically the participatory nature is so important because when you go and do anything in a project, I think the confidence of the community is so important, and that is how the success depends.
If any of the projects that we implement in the field, if the community participation is not there, the success rate is very less.
In Terry, when you go and do anything and we see the difference of any other organization doing it, if they don't have community support, it generally does not succeed.
Therefore, the entire plan of doing anything in the field with the community support is the must and as already mentioned earlier, the state forest departments and definitely the ministry has started with the JFM program long back.
But now also anything that we do and as I move forward, I will also inform about the projects that Terry is doing on community based projects that Terry is implementing in different landscapes of India.
So we know about the arrives it's 42% its arvees buffer zone are degraded.
More than 10,000 families are dependent on arrives and landscape covered is 6.45 million hectares.
All these are there and communities are positioned as the primary stakeholders, the implementers, and the beneficiaries.
So it is all community centric that we really have to look for the community support.
Now, community participation, who is involved, how we are involved.
We have a very important role of the women and youth You know, they are the primary agents and involved in planning and implementation because the women are the, you know, natural drivers in a community in the village level.
So I think their role is must and also involving the youth because they are the ones that will take the projects forward.
And we definitely have the self help group, the Punchar institution, the civil societies, the cooperatives, and definitely in a government based institution of FMC's that are already there.
So, you know, there has to be a strong synergy with the existing programs, and that is how we can really move to success of any project where when you talk about, you know, field implementation and especially when you talk about the restoration part in the Aero village.
You know, there are different schemes of the central, the state government, and also the externally funded, you know, projects that come in and There we really have to have the convergence of the programs.
That is how success because one particular program, you cannot really put that much of funding.
But if you have convergence of different programs together, along with the central government and the state government, the government and the local bodies.
The only the success we'll see but the success and also availability of funding.
I think in India, one of the major issues is regarding funding of projects, but convergence is really helping us to achieve this.
Now we have different community driven restoration models that are already applicable and being applied are the assisted natural regeneration, the grass and common management that we do, the traditional watershed and traditional knowledge systems that are already there and being executed in the field level in the communities, and especially there are many of the water harvesting structures that are already prevalent in the state of Rajthan.
So that is already there and also the community based approach on grazing that is also prevalent in these states.
So these are very important, community driven measures.
And one of the major, you know, parameters of success is also the livelihood centric uh, you know, approach that we really have to take because at the village level and in the field, you know, people look for some economic benefit out of date.
But if anything that we aim for, if it is linked to livelihood, then generally the interest is more and the sustainability of the projects, increases.
That is our direct we have seen that the success depends on if there is livelihood involved in any project and the entire thing moves that way.
We have been implementing uh, you know, these are some of the livelihood centric conservation approach that is there, and they are all very important and how we engage the communities there and make them aware is another factor that comes in here.
Because when we go and, you know, it, initially make aware of any project.
I think that is where we start off with the participatory assessment and where we go ahead and do the community mobilization.
That is the time when we also develop the capacity of the community so that they understand what we are doing and they become owners later on of that particular project or whatever we are planning to implement in the ground.
That is where the convergence come in.
If you can have a convergence at that level, it really works well.
Now, when we come to the experience in entire community driven approach in any project, I think Terry is one of the leading institutes here in India to take forward the community centric models that we are already doing across the different landscape across different regions of India and also the other kind of nature based solutions, including the carbon finance projects that we are undertaking all over the country with over now 40 projects that we are implementing.
Now, I specifically wanted to speak about the small Gun program, the Jeff supported small gun program for this, which Terry is implementing and why I have brought this because Terry is implementing the Phase seven, which is coming to an end and operation phase eight is starting now, and the landscape that has been included in the operation is the entire Arbis.
And restoration is one of the main primary objective of this small gun program.
That is why I wanted to highlight this program because while in the last Operation seven, which is coming to end this year, we have covered the Northeast, the Central Ed region of MP, the coastal states of Tbiladuan the Twilado and Maharasra.
But the land restoration that we have done so far in this project is over 10,802 hectors that we have restored.
And what we are planning in the operation phase eight is that if you see the map, it is the entire Aviles that has one of the prime landscape that we are targeting this time, and we have a target to restore more than 4,000 hectare all over the scapes, but primarily the Arabs.
This is one of the very important projects that would be linked to the overall the Green Wall program, and that is what we can contribute in overall success of this program.
While implementing this program, we have seen the success depends on the community participation and definitely the financial gain they get from the project.
Everything that we have done is that, you know, the success is most of the projects.
We are doing about 70 projects all around.
So the success depends on, you know, most of the projects are successful because of the community participation.
And earlier also with support from ONGC Terry Biocat Limited, we had done a check them in Rajhan just to see that how water conservation is also done with community participation there, you know, in that A range.
So you know, the way forward is that, you know, we should have a strategic vision, the shift from, you know, fragmented intervention to more integrated landscape restoration and position communities and ecosystem steward and climate partners.
So that is very important, and also those scale community based restoration, you know, pilots in the board, you know, the number should be increasing.
And therefore, you know, finally, I say that, you know, community based conservation is not only an ecological necessity, but also a pathway for sustainable livelihood, climate resilience, and inclusive development in India.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, sir.
Moving on, Rajasthan, the state in India lies at the very heart of Ravali landscape and the state's on ground action brings the initiative to life.
Next, we have a video message from Shimahi Shikha Mehara on the initiatives of Rajasthan state from policy to action.
Shrimahi Sikaera who is the principal chief conservator of forest development, Rajasthan Forest Department leads the forest development initiatives, oversees externally aided forestry project programs and support institutional strengthening for sustainable forest management across Rajasthan.
We are going to look into the presentation from Rajasthan side.
I welcome everyone to the presentation on Arabi Green Wall Initiatives undertaken by the State of Rajasthan, a clear case of implementation of policy into action.
This is the map of the country India where which the location of the state is shown, the forest cover of the state.
And you can very well see that the Arabs run from the north to the south of the country of the state.
If we talk about the forest types of Rajasthan, there are actually 16 types of forest classified by Champion and state.
However, I would like to mention the three major types, tropical dry desids forest, tropical thorn forest, and subtropical hill forests.
The state has taken up the initiative of greening the Arabs.
And if we talk in terms of districts, there are 25 districts in the state through which the Arabs run, originally 19 districts, and very recently, six new districts were added to the Arabi range area.
This is the list of the districts, and if we concentrate on the figures shown on the slide, you will very well appreciate that the Forest Department has a hold of 15% of the entire Arabi range falling in the state.
On this slide, you can very well see that we have undergone a Arabi landscape restoration plan and the target has been bifurcated into Phase one and Phase two.
For the phase one, which is actually running, year 25 26, we have already undertaken the Forest Department has already undertaken 31,705 hectas of plantation.
And this year, that is in the year 26 27, we aim to cover 30,000 hectares.
That is 30,136 hectres to be precise.
However, our target is 52,503 hectares.
We intend to cover up this gap by involving the local communities, the Panchaats, the public parks, the community lands, the culture lands, schools, education department, and all other departments of the state under the program Haralo Rajasthan Ablan.
This is a pictorial depiction of our targets, which we intend to take in the year 26 27.
The Forest Department is going to plant 0.70 r plants, and the other departments have a target of 6.06 roos.
So in all, 6.76 roos of plant saplings would be planted in the areas in the Arabi areas in this monsoon season.
This has been very seriously taken by the Honorable CM of Rajasthan.
As you can see that right from the year 24 25, we are into afforestation activity.
We had achieved a target of 722 lacs in the year 24 25 and 1173.
That is 1,173 laced saplings have been planted in the year 25 26.
We are ready for another action to be taken in this monsoon period where we intend that not only the forest department intends to take up the plantation, the other departments would also be involved.
And for the sake of calculation, the area in hectors, 1,000 for agencies other than forest, 1,000 plants per hectare is the norm that we have taken and calculated the figures in terms of hectors.
Our achievement.
This table shows our achievement in the year 25 26.
Now, this has been made possible by a number of schemes.
We have plugged in various schemes, the restoration of the degraded Forest, climate change and combating desertification scheme, the KMA.
We have also taken up works through agencies like NBT, then Project for Climate Change Response and Ecosystem Services Enhancement in Rajasthan Precep, which is a GCA funded project, and Rajasthan Forestry Biodiversity Development Project, which is an AFD funded project.
So 24 year 24, 25 and 25 26, I have already mentioned, and we are all set to go for the year 26 27.
The slides that you have been seeing in the background are generally landscape areas of Abli belonging to different 25 districts.
This happens to be the site from KNP, the Barpur area.
And we have worked a detailed plan as to how much plantation will be undertaken over the years.
On an average, I can briefly say that 70,000 hectres would be planted all over Rajasthan, of which around 30,000 hectas each year would be planted in the Ravi districts.
This is just a depiction of the targets over the years.
And as such, when we talk about plant distribution also, the Rajasthan Forest Department has been proactive in involving other NGOs, departments, army, and other public agencies for the plantation drive, and we have used raise the plans through Farm Forestry, RABP revolving fund from State Forest Development agencies fund In all, in the upcoming monsoon, 6.26 roos of saplings would be distributed.
If we talk about Arabi districts, 3.89 urose seedlings have been prepared, which will be distributed.
Over the years, every year on an average, 3.5 rose seedlings would be distributed in Arabi districts.
For this massive afforestation work, the Forest Department has geared up to the challenge, and the total number of the nurseries of the state at present has been increased to 691, of which the nurseries falling in Arai districts are 383 nurseries.
This is the figures only for Rajasthan.
However, Panjahi department has also come up with one nursery in each district, and plants are being procured by different departments through private nurseries also.
But the major emphasis that is being followed is that local species would be given priority.
N Ssham se Baul, Range, Kunta, Kranj, all the local species would be planted.
As already mentioned earlier, Honorable CM had launched this hara Vics Posa.
And in the budget announcement of year 25 26, the first year has already rolled by, and a provision of 250 cars was made, of which in the first year, 3,250 hectares of advanced section work has been done, 160 soil conservation structures have been made, and 11 new nurses have been created in the year 25 26, and we intend to do this over the years.
And not only this, This year, also in the year 26 27, a commitment towards the Arabi areas has been strengthened by a series of budget announcements.
Like in each district, one of the nursery, existing nursery would be upgraded to a no nursery, and Rupi 130 cos budget has been announced to work for soil moisture conservation works, reclamation of the degraded areas, seed sowing would be done.
So overall, this is a list of achievement that till date the state has been able to achieve.
Some 70,000 hectas of the plantation has been done in a rapidly degraded forest land.
Then a lot of water conservation structures, control trenches, control dams, population tanks have been built.
The Village Forest Protection and Management committees constituting of local members have been activated.
The state in the by districts around 13 and 43 via PMC, which we call, which is the Local People Participation for Joint Forest Management.
They are actively working.
Eradication of prosops uliflora and Lantana camera has been taken up, and ceiling distribution has been also carried out under the Harialo Rajasthan Apiano.
Restoration strategies that have been undertaken involve a number of steps like eradication of invasive species, improvement in carbon stock through planting native species, involving the local communities, promoting the plantation of indigenous species.
Thus Honorable CM of Rajasthan has also undertaken a punch go scheme in which each district has been given or has been identified with a particular species which is predominant in that district, and all afforestation activities aim at making that predominant species plantation as the priority.
We have also undertaken reclamation and eco restoration of mining affected areas, development of grasslands in various schemes, either central schemes or state government schemes, I would like to mention a few success stories of Ha Pajistan.
The first one is that of Alvar, the Ghat area.
You can see the photograph of this area, 50 hectares of the land.
This was an earlier mined area which was lying as such, and in the year 25 26, the area has been covered up, afforestation activity has been taken, and this photograph that you can see on this is of 24th August 2025, just after the restoration works have been undertaken in this area.
The next example is of Pali forest division where Kalu Lambia forest block of Range Sandra, which had flat land but highly infested with proces Jullyiflora.
This area was taken up and this was cleaned.
Four ponds were built up, and the project involved growing grasses.
And we can go to the next slide and see how the area has come up after the restoration activities has been taken up, we are able to distribute grass.
The entire ecological aspect of the area has been changed.
This is another example undertaken in Oddur North Forest Division, which happens to be in the southern part of Rajasthan.
It was taken under the campus scheme where 50 hectares of the range Burgunda was covered in this scheme and about 10,000 plants were planted.
And we can see this is the photograph of the plantation when the initial work was started in the year 21 22.
And I will show you how over the years the area has changed.
This is the status in year 23 24.
And if we talk about now, this is the status of the plantation status.
So you can see how the ecological restoration of the area has been undertaken, and these are the effects which generally happen.
These are all self explanatory.
I need not explain the effects of taking a plantation in areas.
Another example is of Nagor Forest Division.
All these divisions are actually, I have mentioned three earlier and this happens to be the fourth.
All of them are Arabi District.
This site is a Panchakand plantation which was taken up in Nagor.
The name of the plantation is Satana Kalan.
20 hectas of area was covered up in the year 24 25, and in 25 26, 10,000 plants were planted.
So now, after the plantation has been done, I'm sharing with you a photograph of the site which was taken on 23rd of June 2025.
You can see how the area has been transformed.
These were some of the successful stories which the state has undertaken.
The state is committed to the cause of Aravi and greening of Aravi and the implementation is a long term plan, but each year, we are working towards our goal, and we intend improving the totally ecological.
It will go a long time.
It will go a long way in adding to the ecological restoration of the area, and our efforts are on.
Hi.
Taking our program forward, Landscape restoration at scale requires not just national will, but also international collaboration and technical partnership.
I now invite Srikundn Bernval from GIZ to present on landscape restoration in India and approach of the recap for NDC Project.
Shrikundn is a deputy Project Director recap Project GIZ, India.
He also serves as a senior advisor at GIZ India, where he leads the initiatives focused on carbon markets, climate change, mitigation, and forestry.
You can speak.
Thank you.
Thank you, Anerud.
Very good afternoon to all of you.
I would like to begin by thanking and congratulating the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, government of India for organizing this very interesting, side event and also for showcasing one of the most important initiatives of the government of India as of now, which is, I think also interesting from the perspective that the Aravali Greenwall plan that is being worked upon is innovative in the sense that it is multi stakeholder and technology supported and also scheme convergent restoration framework, which looks at restoring a landscape which is spread across four states in the country and cuts across various jurisdiction, different kinds of communities and each site within the landscape has its own challenges.
Yeah, with that background, I will get to the presentation.
I am going to present a project called recap for NDC.
It stands for Restore, conserve and protect forest and Tree cover for NDC Implementation in India.
It's an Indo German bilateral cooperation project financed by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment via its International Climate Initiative and is a part of a joint Declaration of Intent, which was signed between our vnerable Environment Minister, Shi Bhupenda Raji and an honorable Environment Minister from Germany, Stephy Lemke, as part of an Indo German partnership called Green and Sustainable Development Partnership.
This project is on forest landscape restoration and is being jointly implemented with the Ministry of Environment Forest and climate change and z is in the lead and there are five other consortium partners, which includes the co host of the event, Terry, the Energy Resources Institute, International Union for Conservation of Nature, India, Forest Survey of India, which is the Premier Institute for monitoring and reporting on forest and tree cover in the country, International Center for Integrated Mountain Development and also Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education.
Intended outcome of this project is to support and promote the concept of concept and principles of forest landscape Restoration into various management processes and developmental planning processes and also contribute to India's international commitments, both um, when you look at Paris Agreement, uh, which primarily talks about NDCs or bond challenge as well as national goals on forest policy, Where is the project implemented? The project is implemented in these four regions and I call them regions, not states specifically.
I'll come to that point.
It's in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttarakhan and the Delhi National Capital Region, which is a region which covers Delhi plus 24 other districts from the neighboring states, Haana and Rajasthan as well.
That's why zed working on this project also is working on Aravi Green Aravali area in the region.
So the project intends to ensure that stakeholders at national, regional, and sub national or local levels derive ecological, socioeconomic governance and climate change related benefits as a result of FLR and how is this going to happen? Next slide, please.
There are five outputs.
Output one specifically talks about model approaches for forest landscape restoration and trees outside forests are implemented in selected landscapes across the four states.
Output two talks about integrated Monitoring, evaluation, reporting mechanisms that can be established, which looks beyond carbon and biomass stock and looks into socioeconomic and ecological benefits that accrue as a result of FLR.
Output three is about financing.
Restoration is an expensive affair and we are looking at financing of resources from both public and private sector sources, including international sources as well as carbon finance.
Output four is at policies and guidelines which can be implemented to look at developmental planning processes across various regions and output five is on human capacity, development, knowledge management, and communication.
Next slide.
So the approach that recap for NDC has is that we are identifying degraded landscapes through a very scientific manner.
We've identified about 213,000 hectas using remote sensing GIS and then actively ground truthed and also stakeholder validation was conducted.
Eventually coming up with restoration plans, uh, Because we are talking about large landscapes, you can develop a restoration plan and then eventually go to development of what is called micro plans.
The restoration plans are looking at baseline surveys, drivers of forest degradation, and what are the restoration interventions, which is very site specific.
Right? In this project, we are also doing six pilots across various landscapes, and we're looking at channeling finance and we are also actively reaching out to private sector players through the CSR investments.
I'm very happy to inform that in Alvar District, we've joined forces with private sector player who is ready to invest on some of the restoration initiatives that we've identified for Alvar in Rajasthan.
One important element is building capacities.
I think restoration needs to be understood a little more than just plantation drives.
It's not a one time plantation drive.
It is an ongoing journey.
So building capacities of not just the forest department, but also other line departments, and we uh, multiple times in the previous plenary sessions that, if you want to address restoration within the forest areas, you also have to look at other land uses and address issues there as well.
Then there is monitoring and evaluation.
We are working with forest Survey of India in developing what is called forest landscape Restoration reporting framework.
The government of India has been actively talking about a bond challenge.
It would be very interesting to see if a reporting framework can be developed around it.
Next.
This is, the Ravali Landscape Restoration Green Wall, the detailed action plan.
Of course, this was under the leadership of the Ministry of Environment Forest and climate change, but sad had the honor to support the development of this plan, and this plan was eventually launched by our Vulnerable Environment Ministry Bup in the R in May 2025.
Next, Under recap, we are working in across four regions within the Aravali landscape.
Each area is about ten to 15,000 hectas.
We will be working about 29,000 hectares in the national capital region districts of Alvar, Guru Gram Fidabad and National Capital Territory of Delhi and in Gujarat, we'll be working in BanasQata and Sabar Qatar districts.
And here we've developed restoration plans already and we are in the process of developing micro plans, which is very site specific with financial requirements.
And as I said, we are working with a few private sector players in the region because they have a lot of money in the name of corporate social responsibility, primarily from the perspective of nature based solutions.
Next.
And last but not least, I think we've talked a lot in the last few days about communications and outreach in GIZ through its project is really focusing on it and we have mascots which talk about the restoration aspects.
Mit which is a younger who's very inquisitive and my three, which is an old wise tree, which shares information, and this you can see, next slide, please.
In this, we have a LinkedIn page which talks about various series.
I think What is also important is to talk about such technical topics in a non jargonized manner.
We have a series called Ujargon where we talk about specific technical topics in a very simple layman language, and then we have various communication material.
Before I end, I would just like to say a couple of things, Restoration must be landscape based and not scheme based and that's what we are doing in Ravali.
The ministry is focusing on that because I think for the longest period of time we've been trying to look at specific schemes and see how we could use them.
Second is financing should be convergent and not outcome oriented.
Third is, as doctor Sahaa also said, communities should not be looked at as beneficiaries but as partners in this.
Global commitments provide direction, government action provides structure, science provides credibility and community sustainability.
Thanks.
Thank you so much, Conn.
Now we have heard a rich and diverse set of perspectives from policy to practice from ecology to community and from national ambition to international cooperation.
In the positive of time now, I would just quickly like to say that someone has any question or remarks, they can do or otherwise, we can proceed.
As we come to the close this session, I think we all can agree that restoration is not a choice, but it is indeed the need of the A.
The Arave Green Wall is one such effort rooted in science in governance in community and in the conviction that what we restore today we protect for generations to come.
On behalf of all the organizers, I would like to place on record our sincere gratitude to everyone who made this session possible.
Our sincere appreciation to permanent representatives of India to the United Nations in New York, Ambassador Harsar and his team for their support and coordination in making India's participation at this forum seemless and impactful.
We are deeply thankful to Ministry of Environment, Forest and climate change, government of India, for their leadership and vision in advancing the Arawali Green Wall Initiative, and to Shi Raghu pra Ramesh Kumar Pane for representing that commitment here today at the United Nations.
A big thanks to colleagues from MFCC deli team and for anchoring this event with such depth and clarity.
Our sincere thanks to Shrimati Sika Era and government of Rajhthan for demonstrating so powerfully how state level action translates into on ground reality.
We are grateful to Sikunda Bandwa and our colleagues at IC India for their continued partnership and for bringing the lens of international cooperation to this important work.
Our heartfelt thanks to many to my T colleagues, doctor Dipankaa, doctor Javier and colleagues from Del Delhi, Mr.
Varun for their sincere efforts and anchoring this event with such depth.
This is a big one like a special word of appreciation for the United Nations Forum on Forest for accepting this side event and providing us with this platform.
UNF remains an indispensable space for the world to come together around forests, and we are honored to have contributed to its 21st sessions.
Finally, to each one of you here in this room and joining us online from across the world, your presence, your questions, and your engagement have made this session truly meaningful.
You are ultimately the reason these conversations are male.
Thank you all.
Have a wonderful afternoon.
Thank you.