CAMPA

Many development and industrial projects such as erection of dams, mining, and construction of industries or roads require diversion of forest land. Any project proponent, government or private, must apply for forest clearance from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) before the conversion of land takes place.
This proposal is to be submitted through the concerned forest department of the state government. If clearance is given, then compensation for the lost forest land is also to be decided by the ministry and the regulators.
Due to certain discrepancies in the implementation of compensatory afforestation, some NGOs had approached the Supreme Court for relief. The apex court in 2009 issued orders that there will be a Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) as National Advisory Council for monitoring, technical assistance and evaluation of compensatory afforestation activities.

Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016

The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 establishes the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of India, and a State Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of each state.

These Funds will receive payments for:
- compensatory afforestation,
- net present value of forest (NPV), and
- other project specific payments.
The National Fund receives 10% of these funds, and the State Funds receive the remaining 90%.

These funds are primarily spent on afforestation to compensate for loss of forest cover, regeneration of forest ecosystem, wildlife protection and infrastructure development.

The Act also established the National and State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authorities to manage the National and State Funds.

What is Net Present Value of Forest?

Since afforested land does not become a forest overnight, there is still a loss of the goods and services that the diverted forest would have provided in the interim period. These goods and services include timber, bamboo, fuelwood, carbon sequestration, soil conservation, water recharge, and seed dispersal. Afforested land is expected to take no less than 50 years to start delivering comparable goods and services.
Thus, “Net Present Value (NPV)” means the quantification of the environmental services provided for the forest area diverted for non-forestry uses, as may be determined by an expert committee appointed by the Central Government from time to time in this regard.

Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha informed the details of transfer of share of State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority Fund (State CAMPA fund) to various States and Union Territories (UTs) during the last three years from 2019-20 to 2021-22.

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