Germany to fund HP Forest Ecosystem Services Management

The Himachal Pradesh government today signed an agreement with Germany for financial and technical cooperation for Forest Ecosystem Services Management (HPFES) project.
The total outlay of the project was Rs 38 crore and it would come in shape of grant from the German government through the German Federal Enterprise for International Cooperation, HP Forest Minister Thakur Singh Bharmauri said.
Bharmauri said the project would be implemented throughout the state.
This is a technical cooperation project aimed at institutionalising ecosystems approach in forest management in Himachal and the project envisaged capacity building of the HP Forest Department to take a lead in integrating economic assessment of ecosystem services in planning and decision making.

He said the project would include micro planning in selected pilot villages with ecosystem services approach.
It also aims at developing long term ecological monitoring framework and sharing of good practices and lessons learnt with the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and other Himalayan states.