Forest dwellers will have to be paid 1.5 times of what they would have earned in two years towards social cost of rehabilitation
The new guidelines will make diverting forests costlier
Green experts, however, are unsure of the implementation of the new rules
The economic viability of any development project that involves diversion of forest land may now reduce with the environment ministry coming up with new cost benefit analysis guidelines.
The new guidelines submitted to the National Green Tribunal by the ministry comprise a number of new costs for diversion of forest land, including possession costs and habitat fragmentation costs.
The enhanced cost of diverting forest land will come into effect only when the process of arriving at the net present value (NPV) of forests, as prescribed by the Supreme Court in 2008, is revised.
The new guidelines, however, may highlight the steep environmental costs of diverting forests, say officials and help the ministry make a judicious decision.
According to the new guidelines, the ecosystem service cost of diversion will be assessed based on the NPV formula.
While 30% of the NPV will be added to the diversion cost as the cost of “possession of forest land”, an additional 50% of NPV cost will be added as “habitat fragmentation cost”.
Guidelines say 10% of NPV cost will be added for loss of animal husbandry productivity and soil moisture conservation costs. The environment ministry till now was doing the cost-benefit analysis based on guidelines drafted in 2004, which, experts say, are outdated. The ministry came up with new guidelines in compliance with the National Green Tribunal order a few years ago in Uttarakhand activist Vimal Bhai’s petition against displacement of forest dwellers due to a hydroelectric project.
“The new cost-benefit guidelines account for various ecological services like water recharge, nutrients in the soil, carbon sequestration and others. They also account for the cost of possession of forest land by the project proponent. Now the viability of certain projects on forest land will reduce,” said an environment ministry official, requesting anonymity.
Date:Aug 08, 2017