New Delhi: The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the environment ministry has approved a scheme that could allow “forests” to be traded as a commodity as it would allow the Forest Department to outsource its responsibility of reforesting to non-government agencies, according to a report in The Hindu.

The FAC is an apex body tasked with adjudicating requests by the industry to raze forest land for commercial use.

As it currently stands, industries need to find appropriate non-forest land in lieu of and equal to the forest land that was razed. The industry would also have to pay the State Forest Department the current economic equivalent of the forest land. It is then the responsibility of the Forest Department to restore vegetation in that area, which would over time grow into forests.

Industries claim that is difficult to acquire appropriate non-forest land, which has to be contiguous to existing forest. Over the decades, the funds, which amount to almost Rs 50,000, collected by the Centre have been lying unspent as states were not spending the money on regrowing forests.

After an intervention by the Supreme Court, a new law was introduced with rules about how this fund was to be administered. About Rs 47,000 crore have been disbursed amongst the states until August, but it has not led to any restoration of forests.

The new scheme approved by the Forest Advisory Committee called the ‘Green Credit Scheme’ would allow agencies like private companies and village forest communities to identify land and grow plantations.

Also read: Environment Ministry Says States Can Define What Land Constitutes a Forest

After a period of three years, they would be eligible to be considered as compensatory forest land if they met the criteria set by the Forest Department. An industry in need of forest land could then pay for these patches of forest land, and this would then be transferred to the Forest Department.

Previously, in 2015, a ‘Green Credit Scheme’ for degraded forest land with public-private participation had been recommended, but was shelved when it was not approved by the Union environment ministry.

According to a note in the minutes of the meeting held on December 19, the FAC believed that such a scheme would encourage plantation by individuals outside the traditional forest area and would help meet international commitments such as sustainable development goals.

The Green India Mission, which aims to battle climate change by, amongst other means, adding 30 million hectares in addition to existing forest does not help the core problem of compensatory afforestation.

Kanchi Kohli, who works with the Centre for Policy Research and investigates forest rights, told The Hindu that the new scheme does not “solve the core problems of compensatory afforestation”.

“It creates problems of privatising multi-use forest areas as monoculture plantation plots. Forests are treated as a mere commodity without any social or ecological character,” said Kohli.