Familial Forestry, the environment conservation concept of Rajasthan-based climate activist Shyam Sundar Jyani has won the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification’s (UNCCD) Land for Life Award for 2021.
- Theme: Healthy Land, Healthy Lives
- Focus: Individuals/Organizations that made an outstanding contribution to land degradation neutrality on a large scale for 25 years or longer and remarkable positive impacts on land, people, communities, and society.
About Familial Forestry:
i.It is the idea of Shyam Sunder Jyani, Associate Professor in Sociology at Government Dungar College in Bikaner, Rajasthan.
ii.It relates the tree with family, and thereby a tree is treated as a green member of the family. It includes the matter of trees and environment in the family and gradually, the tree becomes part of the family’s consciousness.
iii.Over the past 17 years, more than 2.5 million trees have been planted and 15,000 villages and more than one million families have joined the Familial Forestry campaign in western Rajasthan.
About Land for Life Award:
i.It is the world’s highest reward regarding land conservation and restoration, it was launched at the UNCCD, Conference of Parties – 10 in the Republic of Korea as part of the Changwon Initiative.
ii.Every 2 years, UNCCD organizes the award and recognizes excellence and innovation in efforts towards land in balance.
iii.The award was announced virtually on 17th June 2021, on the occasion of Desertification and Drought Day by President Carlos Alvarado Quesada of Costa Rica. The global observance event of 2021 was hosted by Costa Rica.
iv.The award will be presented in August at the 8th Kubuqi International Desert Forum in China, and the winner will be invited to the UNCCD’s 15th Session of Conference of the Parties in 2022.
Another Project Shortlisted from India:
Two candidates were shortlisted from India for the award (among the 12 shortlisted candidates across the globe), the other one was the Cauvery Calling project of Isha Foundation (Sadguru), It is a 12-year project that aims to enable 5.2 million farmers to transition towards sustainable agriculture and to plant 2.4 billion agroforestry trees by 2030.
Recent Related News:
The 39th edition of annual CERAWeek Conference 2021 was held virtually for the first time from March 1-5, 2021 where Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi was conferred with CERAWeek Global Energy and Environment Leadership Award. CERA stands for Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA).
About United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD):
- It is the sole legally binding international agreement linking environment and development to sustainable land management under the UN.
- UNCCD 2018-2030 Strategic Framework is the comprehensive global commitment to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN).
Establishment – 1994
Headquarters – Bonn, Germany
Executive Secretary – Ibrahim Thiaw (Mauritania)
