Green collateral damage: Social impacts of offsetting deforestation in India

For my MA thesis, I am studying the social implications of forest landscape restoration in India. India’s compensatory afforestation policy requires mining and infrastructure projects to offset deforestation by planting ‘compensatory’ trees. The scale of this initiative is huge: over $7 billion USD of offset payments have accumulated with the Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Fund, which local forest departments will use to acquire thousands of hectares of ‘wasteland’ and ‘degraded land’ for tree plantation. Civil society actors have questioned whether industrial plantations can compensate for forests, and point out that rampant deforestation continues unchecked. Moreover, allocating land used as commons for plantations can have negative social impacts. In the era of climate change, forest restoration is a genuine concern, so my research will also explore alternative, community-rooted efforts to green India as counterpoints to state-led efforts. This award will support fieldwork in Odisha, India starting in September, 2018.

Faculty Supervisor:

Neera Singh

Student:

Partner:

Tata Institute for Social Sciences

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Toronto

Program: