At the UN FAO Committee on Forestry meeting in Rome, India detailed its forest and landscape restoration work. The country says its forest and tree cover now spans 82.74 million hectares, and it has created an additional carbon sink of 2.29 billion tonnes CO2 equivalent by 2021. Under the Bonn Challenge, India has already restored 21.76 million hectares of degraded land, targeting 26 million by 2030. India also highlighted the Aravalli Green Wall project, with 6.45 million hectares identified for restoration, and the MISHTI initiative for mangrove restoration. The government has planted over 3.5 billion saplings through the Plant4Mother campaign. At the session, India pushed for stronger international financing for developing countries and called for coherence between FAO forestry work and other global forest goals.
