Ecosystem restoration: challenges and opportunities for India

Abstract

Ninety-six million hectares of degraded land, unprecedented loss of biodiversity, and extreme climatic events are the key ecological challenges for India. Offering livelihood opportunities to millions of workers who migrated to their villages and recovery from economic crisis due to covid-19 pandemic have emerged as the biggest socioeconomic challenges for the country. A framework of different policies and strategies are in place to overcome these ecological and socioeconomic challenges. But they are loosely interconnected with independent aims and involvement of different governments' institutions and departments. This article, therefore, here briefs challenges and shows how aiming at ecosystem restoration and biodiversity conservation through these policies can provide a cost-effective, efficient, and sustainable way for India to overcome its ecological and socioeconomic challenges.

Subnational assessment of threats to Indian biodiversity and habitat restoration opportunities

“…The major underlying driver of the threats to species in India is a large human population of 1.4 billion people whose food, fuel, housing and infrastructure demands have been increasing with rising per capita incomes over the past three decades (Foster and Rosenzweig 2004, Ghosh-Harihar et al 2019, Singh et al 2021. This has led to encroachment of species' habitat for smallholder/agroindustry farming, plantations, wood harvesting and infrastructure development (urban housing, roads, railways, dams) purposes.…”

“…Finally, overarching threats such as anthropogenic climate change are causing increased forest fire and ice-melting incidences, posing danger for vulnerable ecosystems such as coastal areas, dry deciduous forests and the Himalayas and species residing therein (Byers et al 2018). High population density in some parts is also a major obstacle in habitat-restoration initiatives (Luck 2007, Singh et al 2021.…”

Envisioning a resilient future for biodiversity conservation in the wake of the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…The lockdown provided an opportunity for the Eden Project, in Cornwall, to demonstrate its core themes, including the importance of wild spaces for physical and mental health (CS3). Researchers have also called for greater interconnectedness between economic and ecological restoration policies as a way to reverse biodiversity loss while providing livelihood opportunities for millions of people (Singh et al, 2020).…”

Predicting wasteful spending in tree planting programs in Indian Himalaya

“…India has been identified as a potential global forest restoration leader due to its relatively good governance and financial capacity, at least when compared to other countries in the tropics (Griscom et al, 2020). India's Nationally Determined Contribution aims to mitigate carbon equivalent to 2.5-3 billion tons CO 2 e (0.61-0.73 Pg C) by 2030 with a heavy emphasis on tree planting to achieve this goal (Government of India, 2015;Singh et al, 2021). Himachal Pradesh has seen decades of investment in large-scale tree planting (Asher & Bhandari, 2021;Davis & Robbins, 2018;Fleischman, 2014;Ramprasad et al, 2020;Rana & Miller, 2021), and has a longstanding reputation as one of the most well-governed states in India (Dreze, 1997;Dreze & Sen, 2002) and this combination of extensive experience and overall governance quality makes the state a "most likely case" (George & Bennett, 2005) to observe the effective implementation of tree planting programs.…”