UPSC Articles
Green Credit Scheme
Part of: GS Prelims and GS-III- Economy, Conservation
In News
- In the current system, industry needs to compensate the loss of forest acquired for its commercial activity by paying the Forest department a fee. The department is then responsible for reforesting on other patch of land acquired by industry.
About Green Credit Scheme – yet to be implemented
- It allows agencies to identify land and begin growing plantations. After three years, they would be eligible to be considered as compensatory forest land
- An industry needing forest land could then approach the agency and pay it for parcels of such forested land, and this would then be transferred to the Forest Department and be recorded as forest land.
Benefits of the Scheme
- This allows “forests” to be traded as a commodity.
- The Scheme allows the Forest Department to outsource one of its responsibilities of reforesting to non-government agencies.
- It thus fast tracks industrial projects and enhances ease of doing business without compromising on the environmental assets of the Nation.
