Exploring Private Sector Finance for Forestry Sector in India
Channel: Sankalp Forum
Date: 2021-11-30

Forests and Trees Outside Forests (TOF) have a critical role in mitigating climate change impacts, providing livelihood benefits to the communities, and meeting India's sustainable development goals and commitments. In its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), India envisions creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes (Bt) of CO2 eq through additional forest and tree cover by 2030. This target means financial requirement between $ 600 million to $ 6.4 billion every year.  The land requirement for such afforestation activity also range from 4.37 to 15million hectare. Achievement of this target requires adding areas to the existing forest and tree cover majorly by afforestation outside forest area.

Aligning these commitments and resources with appropriate models on different categories of lands outside forest areas along with solutions around technology, institutions and markets are must for not only achieving the national and private sector commitments around climate change but also benefiting people and planet through livelihoods and biodiversity improvement. Based on panellists’ expertise and experience, the session will explore options for private investments in TOF under different land categories and models and identify key barriers and solutions for promoting private sector investments for TOF.