India: Afforestation in Himachal Pradesh
(Biocarbon Fund Tranche 2)
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Potential site for reforestation |
Himachal Pradesh is a mountainous state in northern India known for its diverse eco-system, rivers, and valleys and a rich cultural heritage. The outer and lesser Himalayan watersheds of the state covering 28,970 km2 area are of great national importance, as entire northern India depends largely for water and power produced by runoff from this region. The mid Himalayas are fragile ecosystems due to topography and soils as well as because of high intensity rainfall especially over three months i.e., July to September. Long dry spells ranging from 3-4 months before and after the monsoon are also common, which affect the perenniality of the watercourses and bring in, ironically, acute water scarcity as well.
The objective of this Project is to restore degraded land and make them functioning ecosystems while enhancing the sustainability of the watershed interventions and peoples’ livelihoods options and maximizing carbon sequestration. The project will conduct reforestation and afforestation activities with two primary objectives: i) restore degraded natural forest corridors that fall within the catchment treated by a larger mid-Himalaya watershed project (MHWP) – that will establish viable biological connectivity among several currently isolated forests and protected areas; ii) this will be undertaken in coordination with the efforts of the MHWP on sustainable cultivation systems in order to increase soil fertility, protect watersheds and stabilize land-use. These activities will significantly increase tree cover and turn a source of CO2 emissions into a carbon sink. Activities will be implemented in 12,000 hectares of land (8,000 Ha degraded forest and common land + 4,000 Ha of non arable agriculture waste land). The main objective is ecological rehabilitation of the degraded catchment by carrying out soil and water conservation measures.
Total sequestration would equal 3.9 Mt CO2e by 2017 (including 1.7 MtCO2e or 43% by 2012). The additional income from carbon sequestration is essential to the implementation of this project. Barriers to the project implementation are related to investment and lack of capital. In the current situation, the financial capacity of the state forestry sector is very low. Without initial investment, the necessary technology, which covers planting material, machinery, and plantation protection, cannot be implemented. This is part of a larger World Bank project with successful community participation to date. The project has significant environmental and social benefits. It will involve small and marginal farmers in plantation activities; and support plantation activities for livelihood enhancement. Significant community participation in the project should mitigate the risk of leakage and non-permanence. The BioCarbon Fund is also buying a conservative amount of Emission Reductions potentially produced by the project, which would offset any potential leakage.
The project is developed by the Government of Himachal Pradesh – Department of Forests, through the Natural Resource Management Society and MHWP. Total project costs for the Mid-Himalayan Watershed Development Project MHWDP is $100 million distributed as follows: IDA is providing a credit of $60 million, the Government of Himachal Pradesh is contribution some $30 million, whereas the remainder is financed through the BioCarbon Fund and community contributions.
Total Project Emission Reductions Generation tCO2e - 3,900,000
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