G20 meet discusses land restoration, forest fires
BENGALURU: Restoring degraded land and mitigating forest fires were among the key issues that were discussed at the first Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group Meeting which India is spearheading as part of the G20 summit, said CP Goyal, Director General of Forest and Special Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
park at Bannerghatta on Thursday
He added that the best practices from the G20 countries will be picked and incorporated in India. Addressing the media here on Thursday, Goyal said India’s priorities under the theme of ‘eco-restoration of degraded landscapes and enhancement of biodiversity’ would be to enhance 50% reduction in degraded lands by 2040.
He said that India is committed to restoring 25 million hectares and sequestering additional 2.5 to 3 tonnes of CO2 by 2030. In the two last decades, 29% of global forest loss is attributed to forest fires. G20 countries represent nearly 80% of the tree cover in the world. Nearly 23% of forest area is highly fire-prone in India.
Some of the key learnings from the forest fire restoration are to use technology for monitoring and reduce response time and involve local communities in forest fire management, Goyal added. He added that best practices and new technologies in mitigating forest fires were discussed with G20 countries and efforts will be taken towards restoration of forest fire-impacted areas for recovering biodiversity. After the meeting, the G20 delegates were taken for a site visit to the Kalkere Arboretum and Bannerghatta Biological Park.