ANNOUNCEMENTS
The research work will set up a milestone for putting in place a “Safeguards Information system” that would address the social and environmental safeguards (Cancun Safeguards) for REDD-plus in India. Further, the recommendations of my work will help in combating forest degradation in turn enhancing the environmental & social benefits.
The research study aims at doing analysis of the Rules under the Forest Rights Act 2006 (FRA), identifying gaps which are applicable to study area, analyzing the institutional arrangement under FRA, institutional setup in study area, status of distribution of Individual and Community Forest Rights in study area, analyzing multilevel nestedness of rules in study area, analyzing models of community-based forest governance after the decentralized form of forest governance brought about by implementation of FRA, analysing inter-linkage between FRA and policy & regulations in India, analyzing India’s policy & legislative framework to address social and environmental safeguards for REDD-plus.
The unit of analysis selected in the research study is Forest User Groups (FUGs) of Gardarwa village forest of Sonbhadra District, Uttar Pradesh. Based on the key findings of the study, Model B (neither CFRe claims have been accepted nor section 5 of FRA is applicable & JFMCs are in existence) is recommended to the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department. In the study area, the over-harvest of fuel wood, fodder & NTFP by the FUGs is causing degradation. Substituting the over-harvest with alternative sources of livelihood will in turn enhance the carbon stocks, thereby addressing environmental safeguards for REDD-plus.
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