'Lack of implementation capacity could affect fund use'

The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill is the latest legislative attempt to create a regime to apportion and utilise the ad hoc National Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) corpus, created by a Supreme Court order in 2004. The Rs 42,000-crore fund was created out of compensation levied against conversions of forest land for non-forest use under the Forest Conservation Act 1980. At present, 90 per cent of this fund is kept with the Centre, and only 10 per cent is disbursed to the states.

The first attempt at creating a law governing the CAMPA account came in the form of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill 2008, which was passed by the lower House at the time, but lapsed before its passage through the upper House because of the dissolution of the 14th Lok Sabha.

Background and key features of the Bill

• Proposes establishment of a National Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Accounts of India (which is to receive 10 per cent of the corpus) and State Compensatory Afforestation Funds under the public accounts of each (which are to receive the remaining 90 per cent of the corpus)
  
   
• The funds are to receive payments for compensatory afforestation requirements due to loss of forest cover, net present value of forests as well as other project-specific requirements, in line with forest regeneration, wildlife protection and development of forest infrastructure
   
• The management of these funds are to be made by establishing a permanent Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and planning authorities at the national and state levels

Issues identified by experts

• A 2013 Comptroller and Auditor General report highlighted the lack of planning and implementation capacity possessed by states to carry out compensatory afforestation and forest conservation, which may affect the eventual efficacy of these funds
   
• Procuring land for compensatory afforestation is difficult, and often hampered by unclear land titles and other procedural hurdles
   
• The complex task of computing the net present values (which account for 51 per cent of the accumulated amount) have been left to the central government rendering fair determinations which are acceptable by states becoming a possible challenge