‘Afforestation key to battling climate change’

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 4

The focus should be on adaptation, afforestation and mitigation measures to cope with climate change. Dr Ashwani Kumar, Director General, Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), stated this here on Monday while speaking at the inaugural session of the five-day training programme on the topic “Climate Change Vulnerability and Adaptation Strategies” for scientists and technologists.

Dr Ashwani said India was a developing economy and was vulnerable to the adverse impact of climate change. “Remedial measures alone are insufficient. Even with an immediate end to emission of green house gases, the climate change will take place and there is a need to adapt to these changes,” he said.

“The impact of climate change can be reduced through afforestation and reforestation. However, the adaptation is going to be the key for the conservation of natural resources,” he added.

Dr Ashwani urged the scientists to work for lessening the impact of the climate change. “Globally, 30 per cent of the land is under forests. India is the 10th largest country in terms of forest cover. India’s forests absorb 10 per cent of the total green house gases emission,” Dr Kumar said.

Kumar said the ICFRE was playing an important role in the global climate change negotiations. Dr TP Singh, ADG, Biodiversity and Climate Change and the course director, welcomed the participants and introduced the course structure. Dr SP Singh, DDG (Admin) was the guest of honour on the occasion.

Dr TP Singh said in recent years, climate change had become one of the issues that received tremendous attention. In the first technical session, VRS Rawat, a scientist, made a presentation on “Introduction to Climate Change: Vulnerabilities and Adaptation Strategies, International negotiations and the Role of ICFRE”. Dr Savita, DDG (Education), ICFRE, made a presentation on the “Role of Leadership in Climate Change”.

The ICFRE is organising the training course from February 2 to 6. Twenty scientists from different government organisations and universities are participating. It is being sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), India, under the National Programme for Training of Scientists and Technologists. Dr Shilpa Gautam conducted the inaugural session.