Ulaanbaatar:- Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav has India has enhanced its Bonn Challenge commitment to restore 26 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2030.
Speaking at an IUCN side event during the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Mr Yadav said India’s approach goes beyond simply increasing the area of restored land. He stressed that restoration must produce measurable ecological and socio-economic benefits.
He said land restoration is a national priority for India and must be integrated with sustainable land management, biodiversity conservation, climate action and rural development.
According to the government’s Second Progress Report, 21.76 million hectares were brought under restoration between 2011 and 2020, generating around 1.22 billion person-days of employment.
The figures, however, also highlight a critical challenge: restoration cannot be judged by hectares alone. The quality and durability of restoration, financial investment, employment generated and long-term ecological outcomes need stronger monitoring. The government is therefore undertaking the 2021–2025 reporting cycle with ICFRE and IUCN, focusing on area restored, financial flows and employment.
Mr Yadav outlined programmes including the Green India Mission, compensatory afforestation, Nagar Van Yojana, watershed development, agroforestry and community-based restoration. Together, these initiatives reflect a shift from isolated plantation drives towards a landscape-based model involving forests, agriculture, soil and water systems and urban areas.
The larger question, however, is whether restoration efforts can deliver lasting results beyond numerical targets. Mr Yadav acknowledged the need for better financing, stronger monitoring, scientific assessment and sustained participation of local communities.
India’s experience suggests that the success of its 2030 restoration pledge will ultimately depend not merely on how much land is restored, but how effectively that restoration improves ecosystems, strengthens rural livelihoods and remains sustainable over the long term.
However, the Minister underlined that the success of restoration cannot be measured simply by counting the number of hectares brought under intervention. A landscape may technically be classified as restored while still failing to deliver long-term improvements in soil health, water availability, biodiversity, ecosystem services or local livelihoods.
This makes the quality and durability of restoration as important as its geographical scale. India’s reporting framework therefore seeks to capture restoration across different land-use systems, including forests, agriculture, soil and water conservation and other landscapes, rather than treating restoration merely as an increase in tree cover.
India is now undertaking its next reporting cycle for 2021–2025 in collaboration with the ICFRE Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Land Management and IUCN. The exercise will focus on three key indicators — area restored, financial flows and employment generated — while seeking to strengthen the country’s evidence base.
The Minister said India’s experience demonstrates that restoration cannot be achieved through a single programme or a single sector. The country has adopted a multi-sectoral and landscape-based approach involving forests, agriculture, water resources, urban areas and rural communities.
The Green India Mission is aimed at increasing forest and tree cover, improving ecosystem services and strengthening climate resilience. Resources under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund are being used for compensatory afforestation and related restoration activities. The Nagar Van Yojana extends the restoration agenda to cities and peri-urban areas by promoting urban forests and green spaces.
These initiatives are being supplemented by watershed development, agroforestry, soil and water conservation and community-based restoration programmes.
From a policy perspective, this convergence is significant because land degradation is rarely caused by one factor. Deforestation, unsustainable agriculture, soil erosion, water stress, changing land-use patterns and climate change can interact with one another. Consequently, restoring one component of a landscape without addressing the others may produce limited or temporary benefits.
Mr Yadav also stressed the importance of communities. Restoration programmes, he said, cannot be sustained without the participation of people who depend on and manage these landscapes. This places local communities at the centre of long-term restoration, rather than treating them merely as beneficiaries of government programmes.
Looking beyond 2030, the Minister said India’s objective should not simply be to restore more land, but to restore better, finance better and deliver measurable and lasting outcomes. This points to the next major challenge for India’s restoration agenda. As the country moves closer to its 26-million-hectare target, attention will increasingly have to shift from the quantity of land covered to the quality of restoration, survival and regeneration of ecosystems, improvement in soil and water resources, biodiversity gains, climate resilience and benefits to local communities.
Financing will also remain crucial. Mr Yadav called for innovative mechanisms to mobilise greater public and private investment in restoration. Long-term restoration often requires sustained funding rather than one-time expenditure, particularly for monitoring, maintenance and community participation.
He also highlighted the need for stronger regional and international partnerships to share scientific knowledge, technologies and practical experience. Since land degradation and desertification are transboundary challenges, India’s progress will also contribute to wider global restoration goals.
