Environment and Disaster Management › Conservation initiatives
हिन्दी — Read in HindiAfforestation, restoration and conservation outside protected areas
Compensatory afforestation and the CAMPA fund, tree planting and conservation outside forests, and the schemes that pay for them. Prelims has asked about the aim of the Green India Mission.
Foundation note: Compensatory afforestation, the CAMPA money and the schemes outside forests
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2014: conserving biodiversity together with traditional human life
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Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures
Copy link to Other Effective Area-based Conservation MeasuresPrelims and Mains
An Other Effective Area based Conservation Measure (OECM) is land outside the formal protected area network that still conserves biodiversity in situ over the long term.
- An OECM counts whoever owns the land, which is what separates it from a notified protected area.
- OECMs count towards Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which is the 30x30 pledge.
Protected areas
- National parks and sanctuaries already notified by the State
OECMs
- Community forests, wetlands and other biodiversity rich land outside parks
- Recognised under the Convention on Biological Diversity
Ecological corridors
- Strips of habitat that let animals move between protected areas
What changed
3 Aug 2026BriefWildlife overpasses on the Delhi Dehradun Economic Corridor and mitigation in the Pench Seoni landscape were offered as proof that infrastructure and connectivity can coexist. The Indian Express, 3 Aug 2026: Next conservation challenge lies beyond protected areas (opens in a new tab)
The Green India Mission
Copy link to The Green India MissionPrelims and Mains
The Green India Mission is the national mission written to improve the forest that already stands as much as to add new cover.
- It sets targets for both, improved forest quality and added cover.
- It runs on public money and is meant to converge with CAMPA and the rural employment scheme.
92%shortfall against the target for improving forest quality
98%shortfall against the target for added forest cover
What changed
16 Aug 2026New
- The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) audited it in 16 States and Union Territories for the years 2015 to 16 through 2024 to 25 and found it far behind its own targets.
- Weak convergence with CAMPA and the rural employment scheme, thin funding and poor monitoring are blamed.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2016: the aim of the Green India Mission
The Green Credit Programme
Copy link to The Green Credit ProgrammePrelims and Mains
The other way of paying for planting is to price it: land restored to a set standard earns a credit, and the credit discharges somebody's obligation to plant.
- The programme was notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 on 12 October 2023, and is run by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE).
- Its plantation method was notified on 22 February 2024 and revised on 29 August 2025.
- State forest departments register the degraded parcels restored, and that registry and the credits earned on it sit on a public dashboard.
- A credit follows five years of restoration and a canopy density of at least 40 per cent, the line at which forest stops counting as open and counts as moderately dense.
- A credit is usable once, against compensatory afforestation, a statutory plantation requirement or a corporate social responsibility (CSR) obligation.
National CAMPA
Copy link to National CAMPAPrelims and Mains
The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority holds and releases the money paid by users of diverted forest land, under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016.
What changed
10 Jul 2026BriefThe governing body approved a recovery plan for river dolphins, Project Snow Leopard Phase II, a conservation plan for the Indian rhinoceros and continued support for the Sangai. States must submit Annual Plans of Operation through a digital system and a geospatial laboratory will check plantations by satellite. PIB, 10 Jul 2026: Four new Wildlife and Forestry Conservation Projects for Dolphins, Snow Leopards, Wild Water Buffalo and Indian Rhinoceros approved by GB CAMPA (opens in a new tab)
PRAMAAN: the Indian Forest and Wood Certification Scheme
Copy link to PRAMAAN: the Indian Forest and Wood Certification SchemePrelims
PRAMAAN is India's own framework for certifying forests, wood and non timber forest produce, launched in December 2023.
- It certifies three things: forest management, management of trees outside forests, and chain of custody.
- The Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, operates it, and audits are done by independent accredited bodies.
- It helps Indian producers meet foreign rules that require timber to be free of deforestation.
What changed
29 Sep 2026New
- The first certificates went to the Andhra Pradesh Forest Development Corporation and to a bamboo farmer from Odisha.
Also filed elsewhere
- Open natural ecosystems · on Forests, grasslands and mountain ecosystems
India's open natural ecosystems, its grasslands, savannas, scrub, ravines and deserts, are still recorded in many places as wastelands, and lose out in land use decisions accordingly.