India calls for sustained global finance for land restoration

India has stressed the need for diversified, adequate, predictable and sustained international financing to support land restoration and strengthen resilience to drought. Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav made the remarks while addressing the Ministerial Dialogue on “Innovative Financial Mechanisms for Healthy Land and Drought Resilience” during the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) at Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia on Monday. The Minister highlighted India’s innovative and diversified financing architecture for land restoration and drought resilience. Yadav emphasized the need for sustained investment in land restoration. He said, land restoration is not a cost, but an investment in food, water, biodiversity, livelihoods and long-term resilience. He stressed that addressing desertification, land degradation and drought at scale requires diversified, predictable and sustained sources of finance beyond public budgets, along with stronger public-private partnerships. 
Yadav also highlighted India’s blended green-finance framework, which enables financing for climate-change adaptation, sustainable land use, forestry and agriculture, afforestation and biodiversity conservation. He also highlighted Sovereign Green Bonds as an avenue to mobilise capital for land restoration, drought resilience, sustainable forestry and other environmental and climate priorities. Yadav also highlighted India’s Green Credit Programme, which enables public and private entities to finance restoration of degraded forest land. Credits are issued after five years of restoration and upon achieving at least 40 per cent canopy density, and may be used once for compensatory afforestation, statutory plantation or CSR obligations. He also highlighted India’s compensatory conservation regime, which channels payments received for forest diversion towards compensatory afforestation and ecosystem restoration, while corporate funding is integrated by the environmental regulatory processes.