Afforestation and Habitat Recreation

The recent film ‘Sherni’ by Vidya Balan depicts real situations of India and its forests. India is losing its forest land to developing large-scale infrastructure and industries. Forest cover by raising non-native and artificial plantations is not compensation for the forest benefits lost. They are hazardous to the existing ecosystem. The obvious answer for compensation of destruction of forests is reconstruction of the same, what we call as compensatory reforestation and afforestation. With the emphasis and impetus given by the Government of India on the conservation of the Environment , resource allocation to Compensatory Forestation through the central government scheme of CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management And Planning Authority) is one of the big spend by the government.

As a sustainability professional, I heard about the word AFFORESTATION a couple of years ago. How is afforestation different from reforestation ? Reforestation is a process of planting trees where forest has existed once upon a time and now no longer exists due to various reasons whereas afforestation is a process in which new forests are planted across land without trees, basically creating a new forest. Afforestation is an important tool for the re-creation of forest ecosystems and re-establishment of functional habitat networks for the maintenance of biodiversity.

We at KIPL have been undertaking large scale afforestation initiatives using the Japanese technique of Tree plantation “ Miyawaki ‘ . As of now we have planted more than one lakh fifty thousand trees using Miyawaki technique of afforestation in the Mumbai region along with Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai. (BMC ) , thereby creating large footprints of Urban dense forest in various pockets of Mumbai. In this article I would like to elaborate on the benefits of afforestation on developing a healthy ecosystem and maintain ecological balance.

Carbon Sequestration - As a forest grows, it naturally removes CO2 from the atmosphere by storing it in its trees. It is a sought method to fight climate-change concerns. If a forest absorbs more carbon than it releases, it becomes a carbon sink. Afforestation absorbs the carbon emissions which are the major cause of the greenhouse effect, thereby aiding the process of carbon sequestration.

Air and Soil quality enhancement - Reducing air pollution is another area where afforestation plays a role as trees filter the pollutants including CO, SO2, and CO2. Along with all these benefits ,it also increases soil quality and organic levels in soil, avoiding soil erosion, enhancing organic carbon levels in the soil, thus avoiding desertification.

Bio diversity enhancement and conservation - Habitat re-creation is one of the multiple faces of biodiversity restoration and encompasses the attempts to reconstruct an ecosystem on severely disturbed sites with little left to restore. Afforestation creates fertile lands and environments by converting areas that were initially barren and had virtually non-existent species into lands filled with productive resources and rich biodiversity of species.Biodiversity includes a variety of life, different level of ecological interactions and various cultural and evolutionary processes that forms life. Afforestation can also impact species composition in the biodiversity as some species may disappear due to their particular habitat being affected.

Social Impact - Afforestation also provides employment opportunities to local businesses and people by increasing the supply of goods. This in turn adds to the benefit of the local economy by meeting the demands of sellers and buyers.

One of the methods of promoting afforestation is through public participation and spreading awareness. This is inspired by the CHIPKO movement that happened in 1973. The main motto was to protect trees and prevent them from being cut down by hugging trees. This movement was a landmark figure in history to value the need to maintain ecological balance.

The degradation of forests has caused immense damage to nature. Afforestation should be therefore carried out with proper care to move one step closer to the goal of sustainable development. “What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and one another,” said Mahatma Gandhi.