Knowledge Nugget: What is the Bonn Challenge? India’s progress towards its 2030 restoration goal

Let’s understand what the Bonn Challenge is. What are the efforts taken by India for land restoration?

Key takeaways:

1. The Bonn Challenge is a global initiative launched in 2011, with the efforts of the Government of Germany and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). IUCN acts as the Secretariat of the Bonn Challenge.

2. The Bonn Challenge makes a commitment to restoring 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested landscapes by 2020, and an additional target of 350 million hectares by 2030.

3. It promotes Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR), which prioritises both biodiversity conservation and human livelihoods. IUCN and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) coined the term forest landscape restoration in 2000 as a framework for managing landscapes, complementing both forest conservation and sustainable management.

4. The Bonn Challenge is a direct contribution to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. It offers a practical way of achieving international commitments, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Aichi Biodiversity Targets of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), and the Paris Agreement

India’s Bonn Challenge pledge

1. India had pledged to restore 13 million hectares with an additional eight million hectares by 2030. This was revised to 26 million hectares by 2030 as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 14th United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification held in 2019 in India.

2. In India, 1.45 million hectares, or 0.44 per cent of the total geographical area, experienced degradation between 2011-13 and 2018-19, while 97.85 million hectares, or 29.77 per cent of the country’s geographical area, are affected by land degradation and desertification.

Infographics by NotebookLM

3. About 461.14 million tonnes of carbon (343.66 million tonnes, accounting for plantation mortality) were estimated to be sequestered due to the restoration, according to the report. Land Use, Land-use change, and the forestry sector are among the key avenues for sequestering the planet-warming carbon dioxide.

4. Telangana topped the list of states that restored the highest land area at 4.18 million hectares, through an agroforestry push of over 3.6 million hectares. Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh were among the other states leading restoration efforts, according to the report.

5. The report attributed the progress to the combination of national schemes such as the Compensatory Afforestation Fund, the Green India Mission, the National Afforestation Programme, and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, along with dedicated state-level greening efforts.

What are the efforts taken by the Indian government for land restoration?

📍Green India Mission (GIM): GIM was rolled out in 2014 as one of the eight missions under India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). Its core aim is to combat climate change by increasing forest and tree cover, and the ecological restoration of degraded ecosystems and forests. It also aims to improve the livelihoods of communities dependent on forest produce.

📍Ek Ped Maa ke Naam: It is a nationwide campaign, initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to inspire citizens to plant trees and raise awareness about the environment to promote ecological balance while strengthening the bond of gratitude with one’s mother.

📍Aravalli Green Wall Initiative: In 2025, PM launched the Centre’s Aravalli Green Wall project on June 5 to combat desertification and restore degraded land across four states. While the land restoration project was initially launched in 2023, a detailed action plan for the project was launched in 2025. The project, pegged at Rs 16,053 crore, aims to create a buffer zone of 5 km around the mountain range, covering 6.45 million hectares.

📍Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act: Under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Act, 2016, project developers, government or private, are obliged to pay a compensation amount and various other fees if the project involves diversion of forest land. According to the Environment Minister, afforestation has been carried out over around 3.20 lakh hectares through CAMPA-supported activities during the past five years.

📍Watershed Development Component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana: The objective of this scheme is to restore the ecological balance by harnessing, conserving, and developing degraded natural resources such as soil, vegetative cover, and water. The outcomes are prevention of soil erosion, regeneration of natural vegetation, rainwater harvesting, and recharging of the groundwater table.

BEYOND THE NUGGET: World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought

1. June 17 is observed as the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The day serves as a global platform to raise awareness and promote action against desertification, land degradation and drought.

2. The theme for this year is “Rangelands: Recognize. Respect. Restore.” Rangelands and grasslands play an important role in biodiversity conservation, livestock-based livelihoods, regulation of the water cycle, carbon sequestration and climate resilience. The UN has declared 2026 as the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP).

3. The UNCCD report defines rangelands as natural or semi-natural ecosystems that are grazed by livestock or wild animals. Rangelands contain vegetation such as grasses, shrubs, bushes, open forests, and agroforestry systems (land which contains trees and crops or pastures). They act as carbon sinks (which absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than they release), storehouses of freshwater, and prevent desertification of land.

Post Read Question

What is/are the importance/importances of the ‘United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification’ ? (UPSC CSE 2016)

1. It aims to promote effective action through innovative national programmes and supportive international partnerships.

2. It has a special/particular focus on South Asia and North Africa regions, and its Secretariat facilitates the allocation of a major portion of financial resources to these regions.

3. It is committed to bottom-up approach, encouraging the participation of local people in combating the desertification.

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Answer Key

(c)

(Sources: India restored 21.76 million hectares of land between 2011 and 2020, says report, IUCN, https://www.bonnchallenge.org)

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