Land restoration is an investment, not a cost: Bhupender Yadav at UNCCD COP17

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav has described the restoration of degraded land as an investment rather than a cost, stressing its role in securing food, water, biodiversity, and livelihoods. He made the remarks on Monday while addressing the Ministerial Dialogue at the 17th Conference of Parties (COP17) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

The dialogue, themed 'Innovate Financial Mechanisms for Healthy Land and Drought Resilience', focused on mobilising resources for large-scale ecological recovery. Speaking later at a side event, Yadav noted that India restored 21.76 million hectares of degraded land between 2011 and 2020, as per the country's second progress report on the Bonn Challenge. He framed restoration not as a standalone intervention but as a core component of sustainable and resilient development.

The Bonn Challenge, launched in 2011, is a global initiative under which over 70 countries have pledged to restore 150 million hectares by 2020 and an additional 350 million hectares by 2030. India has committed to restoring 13 million hectares, with a further eight million hectares targeted by 2030.

Addressing desertification, land degradation, and drought at scale, Yadav said, requires diversified, predictable, and sustained financing beyond public budgets. He highlighted the importance of strong public-private partnerships and pointed to India's blended green-finance framework, which supports climate adaptation, sustainable land use, forestry, agriculture, afforestation, and biodiversity conservation. He also cited the Green Credit Programme as an example of private financing being channeled into restoring degraded forest land.