Modi announces setting up of Centre of Excellence at ICFRE to address land degradation issues

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced setting up of Centre of Excellence at the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) to promote South-South cooperation for addressing land degradation issues.

"In order to further develop our scientific approach and facilitate induction of technology to land degradation issues, India has decided to set up a Centre of Excellence at the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education," Modi said while inaugurating the high-level segment of Conference of Parties to United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

"This agency will actively engage to promote South-South cooperation with those who may wish to access knowledge, technology, and training of manpower to address land degradation related issues," he said.

Currently, the 14th Conference of Parties (COP-14) of UNCCD is being held in India from September 2 to 13.This is a major boost to the recognition of the global scientific role of ICFRE in addressing major forestry research and land degradation issues.

Based at Dehradun, the ICFRE is an autonomous body of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, which carries out its programs on forestry research and education.

The main role of the Centre of Excellence would be to share knowledge and technology amongst developing countries of UNCCD to arrest further land degradation and restoration of degraded lands aiming at conserving biodiversity, food and water security, support livelihoods along with maintaining the flow of ecosystem goods and services for posterity.

It will facilitate networking of national and international institutions working on land sustainability and ecosystem management for knowledge sharing capacity building of the stakeholders in land degradation neutrality (LDN) target setting and provide technical support for land degradation mapping with better resolution for developing countries.

The Centre of Excellence will also be engaged in developing planning, monitoring and evaluation systems for interventions to combat land degradation through the creation of a database and knowledge sharing systems.

UNCCD Secretariat is helping the developing country parties to build their capacities in achieving LDN targets by 2030.