Context: The multifarious benefits of Community Forests Resource (CFR) Rights present compelling evidence for India to recognize and support CFR rights. Community forests with legally recognized rights are healthier and associated with lower deforestation rates, higher carbon storage and biodiversity compared to other forests.   
Background

• On June 14, Prime Minister addressed the UN High-Level Dialogue on Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought.  
• He reiterated that India was on track to achieve land degradation neutrality by 2030. He cited the example of the Banni grassland in Gujarat.  

Case Study of Banni Grassland

• Banni is home to great biological diversity and is the lifeline of its pastoralist communities. However, climate change and the invasion by Prosopis Juliflora have severely impacted its unique ecology. 
• Banni’s pastoralist communities (Maldharis) are applying their deep knowledge of the local ecology to conserve the grassland. 
• They uproot Prosopis in the pre-monsoon period and when it rains, the native grass species’ regenerate from their rootstock.  

Legal Mandate of Community Forest Resource Rights (CFR) in India

• Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006, bestows adivasis and other traditional forest-dwelling communities, including pastoralists with CFR rights. 
• They are empowered to decide on the management and restoration of their community forest resources. Further they can stop any activity that adversely impacts biodiversity or the local ecology. 

Compelling reasons for India to recognize and support CFR rights

First, our forests are grappling with degradation, an important contributor to GHG emissions. More than 40 per cent of the forest cover is open, often degraded.  

Second, it will help in meeting international commitments. India has committed to restore 26 million hectares of degraded forests and lands by 2030 under the Bonn pledge.  

• It has also targeted creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tons by 2030 under the Paris Agreement through additional forest and tree cover. 

Third, India’s potential to remove carbon through forest restoration is among the highest in the Global South as per a 2020 study published in Nature, Ecology and Evolution.  

• At 123.3 million, India also has the greatest number of people living near areas with forest restoration opportunities (within 8km). 

Fourth, numerous past initiatives were severely criticized for poor focus on CFR that resulted in sub optimal outcomes. 

• Social forestry in the 1970s, the National Afforestation Program and Green India Mission have found them to have limited restoration benefits.

These initiatives have drawn criticism for  

• paying little attention to the land and forest tenure of local communities,  
• failing to incorporate traditional ecological knowledge, and  
• not assisting communities to receive the opportunities they desire from restoration. 

Fifth, the recognition of CPR rights has happened at an extremely slow pace in the country. Less than 5 per cent of the total potential area has been brought under CFR. In Banni too, title deeds formally recognizing the CFR rights of the pastoralists are yet to be issued. Further, Institutional support for CFR remains minimal.