This year’s theme: Climate Action

( In 2016, the United Nations chose Earth Day as the day to sign the Paris Climate Agreement into force

Network for Certification and Conservation of Forests (NCCF) joined IUCN, as an IUCN Member, to celebrate the Earth Day on 22nd April 2020. This year’s theme is Climate Action. IUCN conducted IUCN Members Interactive online Forum on “ Conservation Challenges and Opportunities in post COVID19 world”. The member organizations agreed to work together to forge collaborations and synergy in meeting emerging conservation challenges, not only amongst members, but also with policy makers, central and state governments, administrative machinery, civil society organizations and other stakeholder.

NCCF, deeply concerned with the COVID 19 outbreak worldwide, stands together with the international community in fight against this pandemic.

Climate change, habitat fragmentation, land use changes, biodiversity loss and illegal wild life trade, among other factors, have often been identified as possible reasons for emergence of animal borne pandemic like the COVID-19. We emphasise on integrating economies with the prudent management of nature, green growth and sustainable life styles. Health of the people and the health of the planet are inter-dependent, essentially one and the same thing and both can thrive in equal measure.

NCCF is actively engaged in diverse conservation activities including, development of globally benchmarked and India specific sustainability certification standards for various constituents of our natural resource base, viz. forests, trees outside forests, non-wood forest produce, protected areas and wetlands, land degradation neutrality, ecotourism and biomass & biofuels, as its core working area. NCCF is also developing a Carbon Registry-India aimed to provide a trading and tracking platform for verified GHG emissions reduction and removals enhancement.

Implementation of NCCF standards through the mechanism of certification offers huge opportunity to accelerate  sustainable development, sustainable forest management, climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation,  land degradation neutrality, reduced animal wildlife conflict, enhanced livelihoods,  value chains, trade and consumer protection, while enhancing competitiveness, fostering technological development and fully meeting the requirements of health, safety and  environmental conservation.

To deal with COVID 19 and recurrence of such pandemics in future, we need revamped approaches and frameworks for conservation and sustainable utilization of natural resources. Technology based solutions and certification of natural resources offer immense potential to accelerating sustainable development, promoting Sustainable Forest Management, NDC commitments and meeting the objectives of various international commitments under the UNFCCC, UNCCD and UNCBD, ITTO, ILO, WTO, and many more.

On the Earth Day, NCCF reiterated its commitment to promote sustainable managements of natural resources through certification as an important tool of management and wishes good health and full safety to its all valued partners and stakeholders.