The funds are collected as compensation money from projects that divert forest land for non-forest use and are to be used to reforest new land – in essence create forests where there aren’t any. The rules are strict and CAMPA funds cannot be used for payment of salaries, travel allowances and medical expenses but are meant solely for reforestation purposes, as the aim is to bring more land under forest cover. A great initiative, especially as the world is losing a major part of the Amazon rain forest that is going up in flames.

The Chief Minister has tweeted that Goa is committed towards effective and proper utilisation of the funds received under CAMPA. There, however, exists a problem and that is the bad news.

Over the past years Goa has been finding it difficult to identify vacant or unused land to reforest. Funds received in the past under CAMPA were not utilised as no land was available for the aforestation programme. Those were small amounts and the Centre had even stopped releasing funds to the State as they were not being utilised. The challenge for Goa now is massive as it has received, not small sums from the Centre, but a huge amount of Rs 238 crore and so has to somehow scour the land for parcels of it that can be used to create forests. Ironically, while the government has been finding it difficult to find land for reforestation, an NGO last month was able to plant 5,000 saplings in a single day in a bid to improve the tree cover.

A question here is why is the land that had mining leases and whose resources have been exhausted not being utilised under this programme and brought under forest cover? Admittedly, Goa does have a reasonably large forest cover, but there is no denying that part of it has been diverted for mining purposes. This is the opportunity to recover that loss of forest cover. That land exists, it is lying idle and mining cannot take place there again as the ore has been exhausted. Bringing that land under forest cover is perhaps the best option for the government and will also send a signal that it is serious about increasing the forest cover. The CAMPA funds are not restricted to bringing only new land under forests, but also gives the option of improving upon degraded forest land. 

It is not just using the funds that is important, but they have to also be used judiciously. Just last month it was learnt that the State’s reforestation efforts of a few decades ago had gone wrong. While the tree cover had increased, the trees planted were not indigenous to the land, but were Australian accacias that had later spread elsewhere. As per an admission by the government, the accacia and eucalyptus trees that had been planted have no water absorbing capacity, have spread across the forests, and have supressed the growth of other trees. Quite importantly, these trees are of no benefit to the wild animals as they provide no food to them. 

Goa cannot repeat this mistake, or even make another. What can help Goa in utilising these funds properly is by phasing out the accacia trees and planting local varieties of the fruit yielding type in their stead. This is a plan that the government already has. It now also has the funds and every rupee has to be used circumspectly. The Forest Department has a major task ahead, and it has to prove that it is up to it.