Team Herald
PANJIM: In a major boost to State’s afforestation plans, the Centre on Thursday released the entire grant of Rs 238 crore under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) to Goa treasury. The funds would be now transferred from the State kitty to the State Compensatory Afforestation Fund (SCAF).
CAMPA, a body appointed by Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF), was mandated by the Supreme Court judgment in 2002, to collect compensation money from projects that divert forestland for non-forest use. Since 2002, the State has been depositing money of Net Present Value (NPV) and compensation for afforestaion with the central government, which are released later to the State through CAMPA.
“Thankful to Prakash Javdekarji, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEF&CC) for disbursing Rs 238 crore for Goa under CAMPA,” Chief Minister Pramod Sawant tweeted.
“The State of Goa is committed towards effective and proper utilization of these funds,” he tweeted further.
MOEF&CC released Rs 47,436 crore to various States towards promoting afforestation and achieving green objectives in the country.
“It is expected that all states will utilise this fund towards forestry activities to achieve the objectives of the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) of increasing the forest and tree cover, which will create an additional carbon sink equivalent to 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by the year 2030,” Javadekar said as he emphasised that the CAMPA funds cannot be used for payment of salary, travel allowances and medical expenses, among others.
Goa had received its first share under CAMPA in 2009-10, which was an amount of Rs 12.11 crore, followed by second installment of Rs 10.24 crore in 2010-11 and Rs 8.55 crore in 2011-12. No funds were released in 2012-13, while in 2013-14 it got again Rs 6.50 crores. However, no funds were released thereafter, as the State failed to utilise the entire amount that was released since 2009.
Identification and improvement of degraded forest land, identification of non-forest land for compensatory afforestation as compensation towards diversion of forest land for non forest purposes like dams, mining and other industrial projects, is being dealt under CAMPA.
Goa, which has the largest forest cover, is finding difficulty in identifying non-forest land for compensatory afforestation. Moreover, the State’s forest also does not fall under degraded land and hence a minimum amount has been spent on wildlife conservation.
A senior forest official said that the utilization of CAMPA funds is almost nil for past several years. “There has been conversion of forest land for non-forest purpose in the State. It is 2300-2400 hectors roughly, pending since 2009. But we are not able to get the same amount of land for compensatory afforestation, which is must under Forest Conservation Act,” official said.
