India's updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets include reducing emissions intensity of its GDP by 45% by 2030 from 2005 levels. The Sundarbans, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to the world's largest mangrove forest, plays a crucial role in achieving these targets by acting as a natural carbon sink. India is also focusing on creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through forest and tree cover by 2030.
The mangrove acts as a natural barrier to climatic disasters, and is the greatest storehouse of carbon with carbon burial being 20 times greater than any other terrestrial ecosystem. Mangroves, particularly those in the Sundarbans, are highly effective at sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing carbon in their biomass and sediments, making them valuable blue carbon sinks. Sundarbans (with 42.45% of India’s mangrove cover) plays a significant role in India’s climate strategy. Along with the strategists and policymakers, aam-aurats of Sundarbans Delta are taking an active role in India’s climate action plan, understanding that they are sitting in the midst of one of the largest blue carbon sinks, which is no less than a treasure trove.
It all started with a project “Reverse Climate Change” conceptualized by BCC&I, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry. BCC&I has been working on Climate Action for decades. It was also invited at COP 26 in Glasgow to conduct a knowledge session. As BCC&I closely works with experts in the area of climate action, it took up a pilot project for creating a replicable field-level model addressing the main parameters of the climate action plan.
The project was designed meticulously for achieving certain goals which primarily include generating climate-smart livelihood and mangrove restoration. “Data collected by our research team shows that there is no dearth of funds for planting mangrove trees in different blocks of Sundarbans. Most of the NGOs which work in Sundarbans plant mangrove saplings randomly without any soil or pH testing and without any plan for protecting the trees for years. Hence, the mortality rate is high. While strategizing the Reverse Climate Change project, we tried to cover every such aspect in our plan of execution. We also realized that for making the project successful and replicable we need to involve community people at every node of the entire value-chain which would ensure a steady livelihood for them,” said Mr. Subhodip Ghosh, Director General of BCC&I.
The project is conceptualized as a partnership-based project which is supported by central, state and local governments, corporates and communities. The execution part of the project started with climate-smart livelihood skilling of 2000+ people (more than 95% women) of Sagar Block in South 24 Parganas District in West Bengal. They were trained under Agricultural Skill Council of India (ASCI) curriculum for Mangrove Nursery Raising, Plantation and Monitoring. After 4 months of intensive skilling which included 4 hours of classroom and lab training every day, candidates are assessed by ASCI and qualified candidates are certified by National Skill Development Council (NSDC). The entire skilling project was conducted under PMKVY 4.0 under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
The participation of women in the project despite tremendous household work pressure has been a splendid experience. The reason behind such enthusiasm is deforestation, rising sea level, increased salinity, and frequent cyclones causing climate-forced migration in Sundarbans. This leads to the vulnerability of women and children, with men often migrating for work and women and children left to cope with the consequences of climate change. This hardship stimulates the spirit of the women in protecting it from natural disasters. “It was more than difficult for me to carve out 4 hours every day for the training after doing all household work. Still, I did not miss a single class. Now we run a small nursery and earn some money from that. But I do this not only for the money, but also to save my land…my house. We have seen Aila, Amphan and many other cyclones which devastated us beyond imagination,” said Tapasi Das, who was one of the first attendees of the skilling initiative. Uma Mondal, who lives in Chandipur Village with her two kids and elderly in-laws, has not only attended the skill training but also motivated others in her village to join the training programme. “It was not difficult to make the villagers understand the importance of climate-smart livelihood training as all of us are victims of annual cyclones. Hence, for us it is the best choice to earn our livelihood by protecting the mangrove. This not only brings a source of income but saves our habitat as well,” said Uma. Trishna Patra Das, who secured high marks in the assessment, said, “Despite living in a mangrove area for ages, most of us had no clue about different species of mangrove, which species suit what kind of soil, or how to perform soil testing for deciding suitable species for plantation. Now we are skilled and can guide others who come to Sundarbans for mangrove restoration.”
Apart from the skilled workforce, 53 trainers from the local area were trained under ASCI for training the candidates. Local youth were provided computer training for running the centre offices and documentation processes. Dipika Das, who is a certified trainer, has been taking classes for almost a year. “It brings a kind of satisfaction when I see that women trained by me are now working in the field and earning livelihood,” Dipika adds with an overwhelming smile on her face.
“However, the biggest challenge was generating livelihood for the certified candidates. Support from corporates, local government and panchayats enabled us in creating climate-smart livelihood for them,” stated Mr. Ghosh. With the support of the panchayat, the land for setting up of mangrove nursery and plantation was identified. Corporate support came from their CSR fund which helped in paying the wages of the skilled workforce deployed in the nurseries and plantation. In the last one year, more than 1.5 lakh mangrove saplings were planted and reared. Three nurseries with 3 lakh saplings of 12 different species have been set up. The project has created at least 20 person-days of work for each certified candidate in the last 4 months, either in plantation or in nurseries. After the completion of the training, trained candidates formed SHGs and are running the mangrove nurseries as small enterprises. Saplings are sold at a price of Rs. 12–15 per piece.
BCC&I plans to cover at least 500 hectares of land only in Sagar Block under its Reverse Climate Change Project. For good growth of the plants, about 3000 mangrove saplings are planted in each hectare of land. Going by that plantation fundamental, 15 lakh mangroves will be planted in Sagar Block alone, which would turn the island into a treasure trove of a massive carbon sink. Conservative estimation shows that in its lifetime a mangrove tree sequesters 12 kg of CO2 from the atmosphere every year, which means 15 lakh trees will sequester about 1,80,00,000 kg or 18,000 tons of CO2 every year from this project, which means the production of 18,000 blue carbon credits will be generated from the project. Currently, the market price of 1 blue carbon credit is approximately $30. However, developing a carbon credit project has its own pros and cons. A high level of community involvement and climate-smart livelihood generation benefits the people for more than 50 years, while the climate vulnerability of a carbon credit project is very high. BCC&I is currently working on a pilot carbon credit project in Kultali Block which may bring about 400 crores of investment in that area in the near future.
