Post‐pandemic recovery through landscape restoration

Abstract

Land degradation as one of the mega drivers of loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services has affected billions globally, resulting in rampant loss of livelihoods and accelerated distress migration. India, one of the land degradation hotspots in Asia, has also been reeling under the impacts of the ongoing climate and pandemic crises, which have seriously imperiled local livelihoods and human well‐being. Boosting livelihood‐based social support programs can be a transformative approach to scale up Nature‐based Solutions to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality and to realize global restoration, climate, and biodiversity conservation goals. In this article, we provide evidence for enhancing landscape restoration success by creating green job opportunities to achieve post‐pandemic recovery. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) was initiated as a poverty alleviation program in India and can be transformative approach to achieve global climate and sustainable development goals. We use cases from diverse ecological contexts of India to demonstrate the potential of MGNREGS. To revolutionize the process, we propose developing and mainstreaming national‐level landscape restoration guidelines by using locally relevant knowledge for addressing critical gaps, identifying institutions and their roles, developing local capacity, leveraging technology to facilitate decision‐making, encouraging multi‐stakeholder involvement, and promoting inclusiveness and community participation.

Understanding Jhum (shifting cultivation) farmers' place‐attachment and ecocentric attitude: Towards a place‐based approach for sustainable mountain agriculture in Nagaland, India

“…In multiple recent projects, authorities targeted Jhum lands for promoting diverse cash crops such as tea, coffee, palm, bamboo and rubber, but with limited success. The NITI Ayog recognizes that the Central And State Government departments have made contradictory approaches related to Jhum and urged strategic rationality such as declaring the Jhum as permanent 'farming land' (Dhyani et al, 2021). There is a mounting agreement for a serious reassessment of continuing approaches enabling the conversion of Jhum to settled agriculture so that the administrative methods can be reviewed and apprehensions around food security, ecosystem services, and tenurial security are thoroughly addressed (Choudhury et al, 2021).…”

Exploring synergies between India's climate change and land degradation targets: Lessons from the Glasgow Climate COP

“…To meet the 2030 NDC targets, India continues to maintain momentum by boosting energy efficiency, shifting significantly to renewable sources while also increasing its pace of afforestation. This aim should be viewed as an opportunity, with all connected actions contributing to the enhancement of ecological security and improvement of the Country's vast open forests, degraded lands, and spaces having trees outside forests (Dhyani et al, 2022; 2021; Dhyani et al, 2021; Mathur et al, 2021). Restoration of mine voids and degraded landscapes such as Tree outside Forests (ToF) or agroforests in diverse agro‐climatic zones of the Country using indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge (ITK) will help meet Glasgow promises by reducing emissions from agriculture and help fulfilling the livelihood requirements of millions (Dhyani et al, 2020; Dhyani et al, 2021; Dhyani et al, 2021).…”

“…Recognition that natural resources, their conservation and restoration are intrinsically linked to rural livelihoods is reflected in flagship schemes of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) under the Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) a social security programme guaranteeing the ‘right to work’ and support rural livelihood and economic security through more than 250 diverse works, and the National Rural Livelihood Mission (Figure 1) (Dhyani et al, 2021). The Government has set aside Rs 73,000 (US$ 963.88 billion) for the MGNREGA project in the financial year 2022–23 however, this is a reduction of 34% from the expected amount of Rs 98,000 (US$ 1293.97 billion) last year.…”

“…India has already committed to the Bonn Challenge and to the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030 (a joint initiative by UNEP and FAO). India joined the Bonn Challenge in 2015 with a pledge to restore 13 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2020 and an additional 8 million hectares by 2030 (Dhyani et al, 2020; Dhyani et al, 2022). Significant progress has been made since 2015, post‐approval of the Agenda 2030 of UNCCD for Land Degradation Neutrality.…”

Land degradation and development in India: Status quo, challenges and opportunities

“…However, to bring degraded land under restoration and halt further degradation by 2030, India will require a significant transformational change across technological, socio‐political, cultural, and socio‐economic domains (Dhyani et al, 2022; Edrisi, Bundela, et al, 2023). A critical analysis of the existing institutional and socio‐economic challenges, standards of practices (Rana et al, 2022) as well as technological know‐how, including indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge systems (Abhilash, 2021) for ecological restoration, is imperative and relevant for framing suitable strategies for maximizing restoration success on the ground (Gopalakrishna et al, 2022).…”