'India pledges to restore 13 mn hectares of degraded forests'

India has pledged to restore 13 million hectares of degraded forests as part of the Bonn Challenge, a global initiative launched by Germany and IUCN in 2011 to have 150 million hectares of deforested and degraded land under restoration by 2020, IUCN has said.
This target was endorsed by the UN Climate Summit in 2014 and extended to 350 million hectares under restoration by 2030.
"India has pledged to restore 13 million hectares (52.6 hectares), and is the first BRIC country to make a Bonn Challenge commitment," International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in a statement yesterday issued on the sidelines of the COP21 in Paris.

"Forest landscape restoration is a no-regrets option," said IUCN Director General Inger Andersen.
"In addition to its invaluable carbon sequestration potential, it offers a whole suite of benefits, including food security and soil conservation in Ethiopia, water for megacities in China, and rural development and jobs in Guatemala," he said in a statement.
The commitment to restore one million hectares by Asia Pulp and Paper - one of the biggest producers of pulp, paper and packaging in the world - is the first private-sector pledge to the Bonn Challenge.
"It is encouraging to see more countries and businesses recognising the power and cost-effectiveness of nature-based solutions like forest landscape restoration. Delegates here in Paris must take these solutions into account when finalizing the new climate agreement," Andersen said.

Achieving the 350 million-hectare goal could generate USD 170 billion per year in net benefits from watershed protection, improved crop yields and forest products, and could sequester up to 1.7 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent annually.