(MENAFN- Trend News Agency)
Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change of
India Bhupender Yadav on Tuesday said that the Covid-19 pandemic
has“compounded the challenge of fighting global warming” as
economic pressures have delayed progress of climate action around
the world, Trend reports citing Indian Express .
Addressing the United Nation's Conference to Combat
Desertification (UNCCD) Conference of Parties at its 15th session
in Cote d'Ivoire, Yadav, who is also the COP president, said that
India has made significant progress in its commitment to restore 26
million hectares of degraded land by 2030, adding that major
initiatives have been launched and existing programmes strengthened
in meeting our Land Degradation Neutrality targets.
“Over 229 million Soil Health Cards have been issued to farmers
between 2015 and 2019 and this program has led to a decline of
8-10% in the use of chemical fertilizers and also raised
productivity by 5 to 6%.”, said Yadav.
He added that following the global call for the submission of
nominations for World Restoration Flagships, the Government of
India endorsed six restoration flagships that target the
restoration of 12.5 million hectares of degraded lands.
“I would like to point out that India's rural livelihood
programmes have an underlying ethos of natural resource
conservation and restoration. In recovering from the pandemic, we
have used our livelihood programmes extensively to work towards
land restoration. Building forward better and greener communities,
especially for vulnerable groups, will have to be at the heart of
the restoration
agenda”, stated the current COP president.
Emphasizing that landscape restoration is more than planting
trees, Yadav said that it becomes essential that we recognize the
power of local and indigenous knowledge with the close assistance
of science
and technology and must integrate community needs, priorities and
expertise in all parts of the process.
At the COP 15 of UNCCD, being held from May 9 to May 20, 197
parties will discuss drought, land restoration, and related
enablers such as land rights, gender equality and youth
empowerment.
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