Forest-PLUS 2.0: forest for water and prosperity (also known as Forest-PLUS 2.0) is a five-year partnership between USAID and the Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Climate Change (MoEFCC). The Forest-PLUS 2.0 contract was awarded by USAID on December 4, 2018. The goal of the program is to provide technical assistance to the Indian government and other stakeholders in order to help them manage forests as an important part of achieving broad-based, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth that meets local needs while also addressing global environmental challenges. 

Forest-PLUS 2.0’s ultimate purpose is to improve the management of specific landscapes in three Indian states for improved ecosystem services and inclusive economic opportunities.

Forest PLUS 2.0 Programme: 

On September 25, 2019, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) jointly launched Forest-PLUS 2.0. It is a five-year program that began in December 2018 and focuses on developing tools and strategies to support ecosystem management and the utilization of ecosystem services in forest landscape management.

At an event in Hyderabad, Telangana, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) launched the bilateral program “Forest-PLUS 2.0: Forest for Water and Prosperity.”

USAID will give technical assistance to the Telangana Forest Department in order to strengthen the management of the Medak Forest Division under the joint program. The USAID will create operations through Tetra Tech ARD, the program implementation organization, based on the tools, techniques, and practices developed during its predecessor initiative, Forest-PLUS: Partnership for Land Use Science, which ran from 2012 to 2017.

Need of Forest PLUS 2.0 Programme: 

• Healthy forests support healthy ecosystems, which is the bedrock of India’s economic development. For productive agriculture, prosperous industry, and healthy communities, forests are essential. 
• Due to environmental challenges, India’s forests are being degraded due to a lack of an integrated forest landscape management approach, putting economic pressure and strain on the populations that rely on them.
• India has said in its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement (2015) that it plans to capture 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 by 2030 by increasing forest and tree cover.

Targeted areas in India:

1. Telangana, Haryana: In Telangana’s Medak environment, the Forest PLUS 2.0 initiative is being implemented to manage forests using an ecological approach and improve the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities. 

Forest-PLUS 2.0 will contribute to achieving the goals of “Telangana Ku Haritha Haram”, a program of massive afforestation, rejuvenation of degraded forests, and soil and moisture conservation as stated by the Telangana Government on the occasion, USAID/India Deputy Mission Director by Ms. Ramona El Hamzaoui.

2. Gaya, Bihar: Outside of the designated forest areas, the Forest-PLUS 2.0 landscape in Gaya offers enormous prospects for tree planting. Because the terrain is located in a water-scarce environment, agriculture crop failure is common. 

By incorporating trees and other less water-intensive crops into an agroforestry paradigm, crop failures can be reduced. Collaborations between government agencies, the private sector, farmers’ producer organizations, and service providers have the potential to improve farmers’ capacity to adopt appropriate agroforestry models, reducing the risk of crop failures and plant mortality while also increasing economic opportunities.

3. Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala: Forest-PLUS 2.0 will place a strong emphasis on enhancing community engagement in ecotourism in the landscape and diversifying existing ecotourism products to include a wide range of activities. Forest-PLUS 2.0 tends to look into the profit-sharing partnership between VSS and local resorts to promote ecotourism by organizing nature camps for tourists. In cooperation with the resorts, the duration and modules will be determined.

Promoting community-based ecotourism will be a key component of Forest-PLUS 2.0 interventions. Forest-PLUS 2.0 will support the Thiruvananthapuram FDA in preparing Ecotourism Promotion Proposals for the ecotourism destinations of Kallar, Mankayam, and Kulathupuzha.

Set Targets to be achieved: 

• Improved land management on 1.2 million hectares.

• Three incentive systems that leverage money to promote ecosystem services. 

• $12 million in new, inclusive economic activity that will benefit 800,000 households. 

List of steps taken to achieve set targets: 

Some of the initiatives taken by Tetra-tech to achieve the mentioned targets are as below:

• Developing Van, a mobile application that works in tandem with a website to automate data gathering and analysis processes and directly integrate data into the program’s forest management objectives.
• Working on decision support systems and low-cost solutions to improve ecosystem service flow and valuation monitoring.

• Development program to enhance women’s involvement in forest management decision-making and fair access to economic possibilities in forest areas.
• Collaborating with public, private, and community land managers to develop and demonstrate feasible, practicable, and replicable field models that promote economic and ecological sustainability in landscape management.

Conclusion: 

Forest-PLUS 2.0 includes three pilot projects which are Gaya in Bihar, Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, and Medak in Telangana. Also, the promotion of bio-briquettes in Sikkim, the installation of solar heating systems in Rampur, and the construction of an agroforestry model in Hoshangabad are some of the examples of its accomplishments other than the mentioned states.