Egypt has always valued its friendship and strong bonds with India. For centuries, the peoples of these two ancient civilisations have engaged in cultural and economic exchanges. In the modern era, our leaders Saad Zaghloul and Mahatma Gandhi struggled against colonialism in the quest for freedom and national independence.
The legacy of the firm stand that Nasser and Nehru took against violations of territorial integrity in Goa and Suez, by signing the Treaty of Friendship in 1955 and founding the NAM, reflects the synergy between both countries and sets the foundation of their dynamic and mutually beneficial partnership. Today, common aspirations bring Egypt and India even closer in the quest for prosperity in both nations.
Moreover, enhancing economic relations is an important objective that we seek to achieve. Indian investments in Egypt amount to $3 billion in petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, textiles among others. Egypt, which has free trade agreements with Arab, African and European regions, provides a great opportunity for more Indian investments.
The Egyptian government is adopting policies to diversify the economy and achieve tangible development on the long term. New laws and regulations have been introduced to create an environment conducive to foreign investment and small and medium enterprises, while new mega projects such as the Suez Canal Area Development project are potential areas for further cooperation with India. Meanwhile, Egyptian investors are keen to benefit from the opportunities offered by important initiatives such as ‘Make in India’ and ‘Invest India’ and some have already started to inject investments in the Indian market.
Cultural exchange and people-to-people relations represent another aspect of engagement, essential to forging a long-lasting friendship. Egyptians enjoy various activities brought by the annual festival of ‘India by the Nile’, and soon Indians will get a flavour of Egyptian culture during the first festival of ‘Egypt by the Ganga’.
In countries with a large youth bulge, such as ours, cooperation in the field of modern education and technology is key to create a better future. This is also a field that we are looking forward to enhancing our cooperation with India in, particularly in light of the many cultural and social characteristics both peoples share.
The millions of young people who swarmed into Tahrir Square in January 2011 demanding social justice, and who revolted again in June 2013 asking for a more inclusive political system that upholds human rights and freedoms and preserves the Egyptian national identity, have forged the path for Egypt’s transition to democracy.
During the past three years the Egyptian people have successfully adopted a new constitution, elected a new president and House of Representatives. They are determined to establish a more democratic system that upholds the principles of equality, citizenship, human rights and freedoms and that ensures a life with dignity for all.
Egypt has also been at the forefront in the fight against terrorism, which has taken advantage of the security vacuum in some countries in the region due to ongoing conflicts and crises. Al Azhar institution is a beacon of moderate Islam and plays a key role in rectifying the religious discourse in order to reflect the real essence and virtues of Islam, which calls for tolerance, peace and acceptance of the other.
Reaching political solutions to the ongoing crises in Syria, Libya, and Yemen is of paramount importance and is vital to bring an end to the bloodshed and the human suffering of their peoples and preserve the unity and territorial integrity of these countries.
India as a strategic partner Egypt looks forward to maintaining international peace and create a secure and better future for our peoples and the next generations.
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- Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition, a collective of the United States, United Kingdom and Norway governments, came up with a $1 billion fund.
- LEAF is supported by transnational corporations (TNCs) like Unilever plc, Amazon.com, Inc, Nestle, Airbnb, Inc as well as Emergent, a US-based non-profit.
- The world lost more than 10 million hectares of primary tropical forest cover last year, an area roughly the size of Switzerland.
- Ending tropical and subtropical forest loss by 2030 is a crucial part of meeting global climate, biodiversity and sustainable development goals. Protecting tropical forests offers one of the biggest opportunities for climate action in the coming decade.
- Tropical forests are massive carbon sinks and by investing in their protection, public and private players are likely to stock up on their carbon credits.
- The LEAF coalition initiative is a step towards concretising the aims and objectives of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism.
- REDD+ was created by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It monetised the value of carbon locked up in the tropical forests of most developing countries, thereby propelling these countries to help mitigate climate change.
- It is a unique initiative as it seeks to help developing countries in battling the double-edged sword of development versus ecological commitment.
- The initiative comes at a crucial time. The tropics have lost close to 12.2 million hectares (mha) of tree cover last year according to global estimates released by Global Forest Watch.
- Of this, a loss of 4.2 mha occurred within humid tropical primary forests alone. It should come as no surprise that most of these lost forests were located in the developing countries of Latin America, Africa and South Asia.
- Brazil has fared dismally on the parameter of ‘annual primary forest loss’ among all countries. It has lost 1.7 mha of primary forests that are rich storehouse of carbon. India’s estimated loss in 2020 stands at 20.8 kilo hectares.
- Between 2002-2020, Brazil’s total area of humid primary forest reduced by 7.7 per cent while India’s reduced by 3.4 per cent.
- Although the loss in India is not as drastic as in Brazil, its position is nevertheless precarious. For India, this loss is equivalent to 951 metric tonnes worth carbon dioxide emissions released in the atmosphere.
- It is important to draw comparisons between Brazil and India as both countries have adopted a rather lackadaisical attitude towards deforestation-induced climate change. The Brazilian government hardly did anything to control the massive fires that gutted the Amazon rainforest in 2019.
- It is mostly around May that forest fires peak in India. However, this year India, witnessed massive forest fires in early March in states like Odisha, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram among others.
- The European Union’s Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service claimed that 0.2 metric tonnes of carbon was emitted in the Uttarakhand forest fires.
- Implementation of the LEAF Coalition plan will help pump in fresh rigour among developing countries like India, that are reluctant to recognise the contributions of their forest dwelling populations in mitigating climate change.
- With the deadline for proposal submission fast approaching, India needs to act swiftly on a revised strategy.
- Although India has pledged to carry out its REDD+ commitments, it is impossible to do so without seeking knowledge from its forest dwelling population.
Context:-
At the recently concluded Leaders’ Summit on Climate in April 2021, Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance (LEAF) Coalition, a collective of the United States, United Kingdom and Norway governments, came up with a $1 billion fund plan that shall be offered to countries committed to arrest the decline of their tropical forests by 2030.
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]What is LEAF Coalition?
Why LEAF Coalition?
Brazil & India
According to the UN-REDD programme, after the energy sector, deforestation accounts for massive carbon emissions — close to 11 per cent — in the atmosphere. Rapid urbanisation and commercialisation of forest produce are the main causes behind rampant deforestation across tropical forests.
Tribes, Forests and Government
Disregarding climate change as a valid excuse for the fires, Indian government officials were quick to lay the blame for deforestation on activities of forest dwellers and even labelled them “mischievous elements” and “unwanted elements”.
Policy makers around the world have emphasised the role of indigenous tribes and local communities in checking deforestation. These communities depend on forests for their survival as well as livelihood. Hence, they understand the need to protect forests. However, by posing legitimate environmental concerns as obstacles to real development, governments of developing countries swiftly avoid protection of forests and rights of forest dwellers.
For instance, the Government of India has not been forthcoming in recognising the socio-economic, civil, political or even cultural rights of forest dwellers. According to data from the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs in December, 2020 over 55 per cent of this population has still not been granted either individual or community ownership of their lands.
To make matters worse, the government has undertaken systematic and sustained measures to render the landmark Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 ineffective in its implementation. The Act had sought to legitimise claims of forest dwellers on occupied forest land.
Various government decisions have seriously undermined the position of indigenous people within India. These include proposing amendments to the obsolete Indian Forest Act, 1927 that give forest officials the power to take away forest dwellers’ rights and to even use firearms with impunity.
There is also the Supreme Court’s order of February, 2019 directing state governments to evict illegal encroachers of forest land or millions of forest dwellers inhabiting forests since generations as a measure to conserve wildlife. Finally, there is the lack of data on novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) deaths among the forest dwelling population;
Tardy administration, insufficient supervision, apathetic attitude and a lack of political intent defeat the cause of forest dwelling populations in India, thereby directly affecting efforts at arresting deforestation.
Way Forward
Tuntiak Katan, a global indigenous leader from Ecuador and general coordinator of the Global Alliance of Territorial Communities, aptly indicated the next steps at the Climate Summit:
“The first step is recognition of land rights. The second step is the recognition of the contributions of local communities and indigenous communities, meaning the contributions of indigenous peoples.We also need recognition of traditional knowledge practices in order to fight climate change”
Perhaps India can begin by taking the first step.