A+| A| A-
Climate Change and the Miyawaki Forests
The Miyawaki method is a path-breaking initiative in the recreation of forests in India, particularly, in the context of climate change and environment conservation. A judicious conservation policy is the need of the hour as conservation initiatives are affecting people’s lives and livelihoods. Thus, this method offers an opportunity to everyone to be associated with environment conservation by growing a forest in their backyard.
The authors are grateful to the reviewers for their valuable and constructive comments.
Climate change is one of the cardinal new security challenges in the 21st-century world; thus, its mitigation as well as adaptation requires concerted efforts from the international community comprising nation states (Singh 2017: 5). Nations across the world showed their strong commitment to address the issue of climate change through the Paris Agreement of 2015 for the post-2020 period. It has been a well-framed international legal framework under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (Lakshmanan et al 2017). The Paris Agreement adopted a bottom-up structure known as the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to address the tragedy of climate change (Stern 2018). The NDCs are, thus, the crux of the Paris Agreement and for the achievement of long-term climate goals. They embody efforts by each party to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change (ITF 2018: 7). Further, the agreement aimed to balance anthropogenic climate emission sources and sinks. In particular, Article 5 of the agreement highlights the role of forests in combatting climate change (United Nations 2015: 4; Graham 2016: 21).
The UNFCCC has recognised the significant role played by forests, providing global carbon sequestration in climate change mitigation. Parties to the UNFCCC have acknowledged global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to deforestation plus forest degradation and affirmed to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD), identifying the role of conservation and sustainable management of forests, along with enhancing forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD-plus) (CBD et al 2012: 8). According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the conservation as well as restoration of forests can substantially reduce emissions at a low cost and with potential co-benefits for adaptation plus sustainable development (Nabuurs et al 2007: 544). Afforestation, reforestation, and restoration of forests contribute to the mitigation of climate change as these endeavours increase the rate and quantity of carbon sequestration in biomass with huge holding capacity, which highlights the predominance of conserving natural forests (Karsenty et al 2003: 7).
Dear Reader,
Or
To gain instant access to this article (download).
(Readers in India)
(Readers outside India)
