Agenda for the Western Himalayan Forestry Sector for responding to Climate Change

 

Preamble

 

Recognizing that forests constitute major land use in the Himalayan states;

Acknowledging that the regions’ forests sustain ecological flows that ensure livelihoods of hundreds of millions within and beyond the Himalayas;

Appreciating the role of local mountain communities in preserving the natural resources of the Western Himalayas and;

Noting with concern the projected impacts of climate change on the fragile ecology of these states;

the National Conference on Forestry Solutions: Strategies for Mitigation and Adaptation of the Impacts of Climate Change held at Shimla from 19 to 21 November 2009, strongly recommends the following Agenda to guide the states of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand in the formulation and implementation of policies and strategies for the forestry sector.

1. There is a need to formulate a separate and distinct forest policy for western Himalayan states in view of their high vulnerability to climate change; critical role as watershed states for the northern Indian plains; and unique ecosystems and forested landscapes rich in biodiversity.

2. There is an urgent need to establish long-term monitoring plots across representative eco-zones, to gather scientific data on climatic and biological parameters, especially in Riverine, Alpine and Shivalik ecosystems.

3. Mapping climate change driven adaptations in natural resource use and livelihood patterns across eco-zones.

4. Development of a database on Carbon sequestration potential of forest flora in these states.

5. Periodic assessment of carbon stock including soil carbon under different ecosystems.

6. Effective deployment of new and advanced technologies, such as GIS, remote sensing, climate modelling in natural resource management.

7. Urgent need to incentivise community involvement in some mainstream forest department activities including forest protection, afforestation and fire fighting.

 

8. Integrating and extending the concept and practise of Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) within the states to compensate for foregone land-use and occupation options adversely impacting the environment.

9. Conservation of biological diversity should guide afforestation programmes and not carbon sequestration potential alone.

10. Re-orienting afforestation programmes to focus on species that help mitigate man-animal conflict.

11. Revisiting forestry operations to realise full water conservation potential of forests leading to development of ‘water sanctuaries’.

12. Gender specific policies are required to help cope with the loss of control over natural resources, technologies and credit to deal with seasonal and episodic weather and natural disasters.

13. Impress upon Government of India to move beyond Green Bonus to adequately compensate these states for ecosystem services flows.

14. Re-orient developmental interventions adopting watershed as the unit for planning and fund flows.

15. Re-design the existing tourism policy to produce alternative mountain-specific tourism models focussing on environmental sustainability.

16. Forest departments should be more proactive in influencing policies of other sectors such as Road Construction, Transportation, Power and Industries which impinge on conservation issues.

 

The Conference is

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