India to have roadmap for cutting carbon emissions

India has unveiled a draft national policy to provide a roadmap for building comprehensive strategies for cutting carbon emissions from deforestation.
Officials said the national policy for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) along with the strategies will lead to REDD+ readiness in the country and enable India to gain from international REDD+ mechanism for its pro conservation policies and efforts in future.
At the same time, the policy, being formulated to tackle climate change, will also create financial incentives to local communities which are in the forefront of conservation of forests, they said.
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) under United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is a global endeavour to use carbon sequestration potential of the forests to manage climate change within accepted limits of tolerance.

The key objectives of the draft policy include creation of REDD+ architecture at National and Sub-National levels to support REDD+ actions and development of an appropriate REDD+ strategy and implementation frameworks at a nested level to represent the diversity of forests in the country.
It envisages management of the forests for a bouquet of ecosystem services, safeguarding the rights and interests of local communities including improvement of their livelihood and also seeks to encourage and incentivise local communities for their role in conservation by transferring the financial benefits accrued on account of REDD+ to them based on their performance.