I. Introduction
This annex describes activities to be undertaken and the progress and achievements to be made with funds obligated under this Partnership Agreement for the Sustainable Forests and Climate Adaptation Project. Nothing in this Annex 1 shall be construed as amending any of the definitions or terms of the Agreement.
II. Background
It is now well accepted that long-term solutions to climate change require stabilizing greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere to acceptable levels and helping individuals and communities adapt to risks associated with climate change. The global community needs to undertake ambitious emissions reductions in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibility. The global community needs to undertake ambitious emissions reductions in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibility in order to achieve a stable climate.
The GOI has responded to the challenge by committing to a green path to growth that enhances the ecological sustainability of its development path. More specifically, India has declared its intent to endeavor to reduce the emissions carbon intensity of its GDP by 20-25 percent by 2020 in comparison with the 2005 level. India has released its National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). The NAPCC has six “missions” relating to climate change adaptation:
- Sustainable Habitat - including water and wastewater management and urban planning.
- Water - including efficiency, basin management, regulation, irrigation and wetlands management.
- Himalayan Ecosystem - including research and monitoring and community based ecosystem management.
- Green India - including eco-corridors.
- Sustainable Agriculture – including research & development of drought-resistant crops, risk management, improved information and biotechnologies.
- Strategic Knowledge - including modeling, access to data and human resource development.
State-level plans in line with the NAPCC are currently being developed.
For some time, the International Community has been discussing the need to create incentives to reduce deforestation, including sustainable forestry management practices to increase forest cover and carbon stocks. Current climate change negotiations have recognized this need with the genesis of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation Plus initiative (REDD+), with the ‘plus’ signifying recognition of the gains to made from afforestation and sequestration, in addition to those from avoided emissions. Also in late 2009, the U.S. committed funding for the REDD+ initiative to help countries reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and enhance removal of GHG emissions by forests.
Both the U.S. and India recognize that there exists an opportunity to operationalize REDD+ within the Indian context. There is a growing consensus that as a country moves towards full-scale REDD+ implementation, it will need to develop a strategy and the conditions to implement that strategy – generally referred to as “REDD+ readiness”.
In November 2009, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Minister of External Affairs Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in which the U.S. and India agreed to enhance cooperation on energy security, energy efficiency, clean energy, and climate change.
India has a strong track record of conserving forests in the face of intense human and animal pressures, and the country’s forest cover has increased from 65.96 million hectares (mha) in 1997, to 69.09 mha in 2010 – an increase of 4.75%. The Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education (ICFRE) has estimated (August 2009) that, annually, India’s forests and tree cover neutralizes 11.25% of India’s global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at 1994 levels, and would offset 6.53% and 4.87% of projected annual emissions in 2010 and 2020 respectively. The Ministry of Environment and Forests has taken substantive steps towards better assessing its GHG emissions including those from the forestry sector, as evident in the 2009 assessment of GHG emissions by the Indian Network of Climate Change Assessment (INCCA), with reference to emissions in 2007.
While most forests are owned by the states and all forestry projects must include state government cooperation, forestry policies and projects are centrally driven. Significant engagement at the national level is needed to scale up the impact of state-level programs and apply successful lessons to other regions. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) has recently established a REDD+ Cell to help build REDD+ strategies and policies, create awareness, and build capacity on the REDD+ process, and develop guidelines on forest carbon stock enhancement, and participation in international carbon markets and REDD+ activities.
There is a similar opportunity to work with MOEF’s Climate Change Division to design and implement activities that will have positive impacts on climate adaptation, in accordance with criteria suggested by the NAPCC adaption “missions.”
III. Sustainable Forests and Climate Adaptation Project Purpose, Intermediate Results, Illustrative Activities and Illustrative Indicators
a. Purpose: The purpose of Sustainable Forests and Climate Adaptation Project is to help improve the sustainability of forests in order to mitigate GHG emissions through carbon sequestration by forests, and to assist individuals and communities to adapt to climate change. USAID anticipates the Project will contribute to MOEF efforts to establish and implement programs through its REDD+ Cell, in the Climate Change Division. The Project will achieve its results through two components: (a) Sustainable Forests and Forest Carbon Stock Enhancement, and (b) Climate Adaptation.
b. Results: To achieve its purpose, the Sustainable Forests and Climate Adaptation Project seeks to attain the following outcomes:
1. (Sustainable Forests) Sequestration of carbon through forests increased, as measured by the number of hectares under demonstration of improved forest carbon management as a result of the project. To achieve this result, methodologies and guidelines will be developed to measure forest carbon stocks and changes on a gross and net basis, bearing in mind the development of international REDD+ and carbon markets.
2. (Climate Adaptation) Capacity for people to adapt to climate risks improved, as measured on the basis of objective criteria by the number of people with increased capacity to cope with impacts of climate variability and change as a result of the project.
Illustrative Activities:
The Project will engage with the MOEF to implement both components.
Component 1: Sustainable Forests
Component 1 will work on ‘sustainable forests’, defined for this Project in accordance with the November 2009 USG-GOI MOU as including activities aimed at, “reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and enhanced sequestration, through afforestation, conservation and sustainable management of forests.” This component is divided into subcomponents: (a) research and design, and (b) deployment.
a. Research and Design
The research and design phase of Component 1 will focus on U.S.–India collaborative, scientific, and technical research and exchanges that explore methods and approaches to implement REDD+. Such research will support India’s programs, and will further demonstrate the nation’s advances in science and technology, from which the lessons learned may be applied globally.
MOEF and USAID will jointly decide upon mutual areas of scientific interest, with selection criteria relating to research gaps and geographic preferences. Scientific collaboration will result in experimentation and analysis of a variety of biophysical and socioeconomic methodologies and approaches. As research and design results are obtained, they will be shared with relevant stakeholders for feedback and further refinement.
The research and design phase will be divided into three overall categories:
a. Improve management practices for ecosystem services and sequestration;
b. Help the GOI develop appropriate guidelines and methodologies to enhance forest carbon stocks with particular emphasis on carbon accounting and GHG inventory systems to support India’s participation in international carbon markets at both national and state levels; and
c. Analyze social and economic incentives to help reduce and sequester GHG emissions.
b. Deployment
The deployment phase will take the research and design results above and apply them for field demonstration and testing. Criteria for selecting pilots for implementation and evaluation include the potential to scale-up practices from local, to state, and possibly to national levels. Successful field testing leading to the scale-up of REDD+ actions will include:
1. Dialogue with stakeholders from local to national levels, including government, civil society, universities, communities and the private sector to explain the approach to REDD+ as well as present the research findings.
2. Participation and constructive engagement of these stakeholders to pilot and refine research results.
3. Strengthening the enabling environment to facilitate piloting and scale-up.
Component 2: Climate Adaptation
Under this component, USAID will work with the appropriate entities within MOEF (e.g. the Climate Change Division) to design and implement activities related to climate adaptation, in accordance with criteria suggested by the NAPCC adaption “missions.” The approach to Component 3 is similar in strategy and focus to the approach in Component 1, in that it employs a research/design phase followed by a deployment phase. Through consultations with MOEF, activities under Component 3 will:
- draw on the best U.S. science and technology capacity to work jointly with Indian scientists and technology leaders;
- conform to priorities established at national and state levels;
- build on knowledge gained through past assessments;
- leverage synergies with other areas of USAID and USG-India cooperation; and
- complement activities that are being implemented by other development partners.
The geographic and thematic focus for adaptation activities will be determined through consultations between USAID and MOEF. Geographically, activities are expected to focus on the regions of India which are at greatest risk of being negatively impacted by climate change, and with the greatest need for increased capacity. Thematically, the activities may focus on water, agriculture, coastal zones, natural resources, or urban planning – depending upon MOEF priorities.
U.S.-India cooperation on adaptation may support the NAPCC Strategic Knowledge Mission, or other adaptation-related missions led by other Ministries (e.g. agriculture, water, and/or sustainable habitat). This decision will be informed through consultations with MOEF.
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