The announcement by the United Nations terming 2021-30 as the Decade of Ecosystem Restoration could not have come at a more appropriate time.
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The rapid expansion of global economies over the last 60 years, along with an increase in development-led human pressures, have resulted in over-exploitation and degradation of natural resources at a pace that far exceeds their natural ability to recover.
Increased movement of people and goods has led to a rise in the invasive alien species all around the world, which heavily impact the biodiversity. Degradation has also impaired ecosystem service capability across the board.
There is an urgent need to reverse this trend and assist ecosystems to recover at a rate faster than their degradation. This calls for a shift from the traditional model of endangered species-focused conservation to a new one of ecosystem restoration. This applies to India as well.
We are one of the most biodiverse countries in the world. However, most of our unique ecosystems stand degraded to varying degrees today. Not just forests, many other ecosystems like wetlands, rivers, estuaries, grasslands and deserts, are damaged. Restoring them is a mammoth task, but one that will yield major benefits for our biodiversity and citizens. The question, then, is how we go about it.
Identifying restoration priorities
The first step should be to identify priority areas for restoration. A pre-requisite for this is a reasonably robust inventory of degradation of different ecosystems at a national level. We could then build a restoration strategy around the three top priorities for the country.
This would help direct policy-making, project identification, resourcing and implementation towards these key priorities. Projects that can deliver benefits across more than one priority may receive greater attention.
The first priority should be restoration aimed at enhancement of ecosystem services. A good example would be water security, which requires attention to our catchment areas, freshwater lakes, rivers, etc.
The second restoration priority would be enhancement of biodiversity. Many of our forests have lost much of their native plants due to invasion by alien species. As a result, they are legally protected, but ecologically unprotected. Development pressures like roads, railways and tourism have led to degradation of multiple ecosystems, including coastal and high altitude ones.
The third priority of restoration would be prevention of natural disasters. Although this by itself is an ecosystem service, identifying this as a separate priority is warranted by the scale and breadth of natural disasters that we have been facing in the last two decades.
Landslides in several parts of the country have shown us the damage denuded hills can do. In the absence of healthy mangrove forests, cyclones are leaving a trail of lost life and property even in the hinterland areas. We need to urgently revive our natural disaster prevention mechanisms.
Developing a policy framework
An ecological restoration policy at the national level is needed. The policy has to strike a balance between the needs of climate change, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem integrity.
Research findings indicate that biodiverse ecosystems are far more efficient in sequestering carbon and providing ecosystem services, and this should help us move away from putting excessive focus on tree-planting drives.
The policy also has to include aspects like goal setting, monitoring, leveraging diverse streams of knowledge, public-private partnership, funding, etc. The policy should recognise that the primary responsibility for restoration lies with the State and communities and private sector organisations can at best play an ancillary role.
Building capacity for restoration
Unlike other geographies like North America and Australia, ecological restoration is a relatively new discipline in India and hence our restoration capacity is quite limited. The discipline has grown rapidly around the world in the last 30 years, with well-defined principles and protocols.
Best practices for restoration of many ecosystem types are available. Adapting these to Indian conditions would benefit our restoration initiatives significantly.
Ecological restoration is a specialised discipline with a high focus on sciences dealing with restoration, plants, soil, hydrology, geology, etc. Hence, there is an urgent need to create dedicated graduate and post-graduate courses on ecological restoration as part of our academic curriculum, using courses offered by universities overseas as reference.
Training models also need to be designed for forest departments, who are key stakeholders managing many of our ecosystems. Short-term training programmes for field supervisors will also be essential.
Scaling up
Developing low-cost, replicable restoration models will enable restoring larger areas with same funding. Integrating various restoration projects within a landscape could help derive greater synergies and scale.
Restoration research needs to focus on finding scalable solutions to field challenges. Leading institutions like Indian Institutes of Technology need to focus their environmental engineering studies on ecological restoration.
Accessing funds for grassroots restoration work is currently challenging. Funding agencies, including corporate CSR, need to allocate larger resources for this crucial activity.
Ensuring stakeholder engagement
The success of large scale restoration efforts needs involvement of a wide range of stakeholders including local communities. This can by itself be a driver of livelihoods. Many countries have public-private partnership models for restoration where accredited organisations participate in the process, both on non-profit and for-profit models.
Developing metrics for assessing the economic value of restoration will help generate greater appreciation among the wider public, and the evolution of a greener GDP model.
Accomplishing all of the above may take the initial few years of the decade of restoration. But having these building blocks in place will ensure that our restoration program is targeted and effective. Otherwise, we run the risk of continuing to witness adhoc and dispersed efforts on a small scale.
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- In the Large States category (overall), Chhattisgarh ranks 1st, followed by Odisha and Telangana, whereas, towards the bottom are Maharashtra at 16th, Assam at 17th and Gujarat at 18th. Gujarat is one State that has seen startling performance ranking 5th in the PAI 2021 Index outperforming traditionally good performing States like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, but ranks last in terms of Delta
- In the Small States category (overall), Nagaland tops, followed by Mizoram and Tripura. Towards the tail end of the overall Delta ranking is Uttarakhand (9th), Arunachal Pradesh (10th) and Meghalaya (11th). Nagaland despite being a poor performer in the PAI 2021 Index has come out to be the top performer in Delta, similarly, Mizoram’s performance in Delta is also reflected in it’s ranking in the PAI 2021 Index
- In terms of Equity, in the Large States category, Chhattisgarh has the best Delta rate on Equity indicators, this is also reflected in the performance of Chhattisgarh in the Equity Pillar where it ranks 4th. Following Chhattisgarh is Odisha ranking 2nd in Delta-Equity ranking, but ranks 17th in the Equity Pillar of PAI 2021. Telangana ranks 3rd in Delta-Equity ranking even though it is not a top performer in this Pillar in the overall PAI 2021 Index. Jharkhand (16th), Uttar Pradesh (17th) and Assam (18th) rank at the bottom with Uttar Pradesh’s performance in line with the PAI 2021 Index
- Odisha and Nagaland have shown the best year-on-year improvement under 12 Key Development indicators.
- In the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu and, the bottom three performers are Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar.
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers were Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram; and, the bottom three performers are Manipur, Assam and Meghalaya.
- Among the 60:40 division States, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are the top three performers and Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Delhi appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland; and, the bottom three performers are Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh
- Among the 60:40 division States, Goa, West Bengal and Delhi appear as the top three performers and Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Bihar appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura were the top three performers and Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh were the bottom three performers
- West Bengal, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were the top three States amongst the 60:40 division States; while Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan appeared as the bottom three performers
- In the case of 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura were the top three performers and Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand featured as the bottom three
- Among the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa and the bottom three performers are Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Goa
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland and the bottom three performers are Manipur and Assam
In a diverse country like India, where each State is socially, culturally, economically, and politically distinct, measuring Governance becomes increasingly tricky. The Public Affairs Index (PAI 2021) is a scientifically rigorous, data-based framework that measures the quality of governance at the Sub-national level and ranks the States and Union Territories (UTs) of India on a Composite Index (CI).
States are classified into two categories – Large and Small – using population as the criteria.
In PAI 2021, PAC defined three significant pillars that embody Governance – Growth, Equity, and Sustainability. Each of the three Pillars is circumscribed by five governance praxis Themes.
The themes include – Voice and Accountability, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption.
At the bottom of the pyramid, 43 component indicators are mapped to 14 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are relevant to the States and UTs.
This forms the foundation of the conceptual framework of PAI 2021. The choice of the 43 indicators that go into the calculation of the CI were dictated by the objective of uncovering the complexity and multidimensional character of development governance
The Equity Principle
The Equity Pillar of the PAI 2021 Index analyses the inclusiveness impact at the Sub-national level in the country; inclusiveness in terms of the welfare of a society that depends primarily on establishing that all people feel that they have a say in the governance and are not excluded from the mainstream policy framework.
This requires all individuals and communities, but particularly the most vulnerable, to have an opportunity to improve or maintain their wellbeing. This chapter of PAI 2021 reflects the performance of States and UTs during the pandemic and questions the governance infrastructure in the country, analysing the effectiveness of schemes and the general livelihood of the people in terms of Equity.
Growth and its Discontents
Growth in its multidimensional form encompasses the essence of access to and the availability and optimal utilisation of resources. By resources, PAI 2021 refer to human resources, infrastructure and the budgetary allocations. Capacity building of an economy cannot take place if all the key players of growth do not drive development. The multiplier effects of better health care, improved educational outcomes, increased capital accumulation and lower unemployment levels contribute magnificently in the growth and development of the States.
The Pursuit Of Sustainability
The Sustainability Pillar analyses the access to and usage of resources that has an impact on environment, economy and humankind. The Pillar subsumes two themes and uses seven indicators to measure the effectiveness of government efforts with regards to Sustainability.
The Curious Case Of The Delta
The Delta Analysis presents the results on the State performance on year-on-year improvement. The rankings are measured as the Delta value over the last five to 10 years of data available for 12 Key Development Indicators (KDI). In PAI 2021, 12 indicators across the three Pillars of Equity (five indicators), Growth (five indicators) and Sustainability (two indicators). These KDIs are the outcome indicators crucial to assess Human Development. The Performance in the Delta Analysis is then compared to the Overall PAI 2021 Index.
Key Findings:-
In the Scheme of Things
The Scheme Analysis adds an additional dimension to ranking of the States on their governance. It attempts to complement the Governance Model by trying to understand the developmental activities undertaken by State Governments in the form of schemes. It also tries to understand whether better performance of States in schemes reflect in better governance.
The Centrally Sponsored schemes that were analysed are National Health Mission (NHM), Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services scheme (ICDS), Mahatma Gandh National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SmSA) and MidDay Meal Scheme (MDMS).
National Health Mission (NHM)
INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS)
MID- DAY MEAL SCHEME (MDMS)
SAMAGRA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN (SMSA)
MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (MGNREGS)