Forest & Biodiversity

While, globally, it is the loss of forests that is a major issue, in India it is forest degradation that remains the biggest challenge. Our work focuses on promoting sustainable forest management, providing practical solutions towards generating finance through carbon trading from forests, and supporting the livelihood of forest dependent communities. We also work towards engaging communities for biodiversity conservation and mitigation of human-wildlife conflict through policy and scientific measures.

forest

NEW IN FOREST & BIODIVERSITY

  • forest wood

    Article

    Rehabilitation services at RMP for converting red mud dump yard into green cover

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  • village-community
     

    Article

    Carbon finance is a way to conserve India's tigers and their habitat

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  • nagaland biodiversity

    PUBLICATION

    A Tradition in Transition: Understanding the Role of Shifting Cultivation for Sustainable Development of Northeast India

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  • nagaland hunter

    Article

    Firewood Consumption and Forest Degradation in Himalayan states: A Review of Research Gaps

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  • Social Impact Assessment

    Opinion

    To maintain sustainability, gram sabhas have to be empowered

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Projects

Survey

Meghalaya Traditional Knowledge Portal

land degradation

Study on Economics of Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought (DLDD) in India

OTBL

OTBL Campus Impact Challenge: A Youth Initiative for Creating Positive Spaces

afforestation

Afforestation/Reforestation Clean Development Mechanism study under Uttar Pradesh Participatory Forest Management and Poverty Alleviation Project

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Articles

Coastal Blue Carbon in Practice: The Need for a User Manual

Dr Raghab Ray

Blue carbon refers to the organic carbon captured and stored by coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, tidal salt marshes, and seagrass meadows. These habitats sequester excess CO₂ in their biomass and soil for centuries, playing a vital role in mitigating climate change while supporting coastal resilience and biodiversity.

India’s Green Diplomacy Could Be Its Biggest Soft Power Tool Yet

Dr T P Singh

Natural resource conservation isn’t just an environmental concern; it’s a geopolitical one.

Echoes of the Urban Forest: Reclaiming Green in India’s Urban Cities

Mr Aniruddh Soni

The rapid growth of major cities and state capitals in India has led to an increased demand for housing, commercial spaces, and infrastructure.

Seagrass Meadows – The Emerging Carbon Sink

Dr Syed Arif Wali
,
Dr Jitendra Vir Sharma

Beneath the world’s marine waters lies a hidden champion in the fight against climate change - underwater meadows that capture carbon dioxide up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests. These remarkable ecosystems are seagrasses, and as the world marks World Seagrass Day on March 1st, scientists are increasingly recognizing their crucial role in our planet's future.

TERI Conducts Carbon Stock Assessment Fieldwork in Mehsana District, Gujarat

Critically Endangered Forest Owlet: Under Threat from Habitat Loss

Forest owlets are an endemic species to India. They are found only in small pockets of forest patches in India, and nowhere else in the world. The species were thought to be extinct, until a group of scientists rediscovered the species, and then started working on them. The forest owlets are threatened by severe habitat loss and development projects, apart from changes in climate. Sharada Balasubramanian writes about the birds, their rediscovery and how their habitat is threatened by ancient climate change and landscape modification.

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Events

Building a Forestry Carbon Credit Roadmap for Uttarakhand under RECAP4NDC

November 27, 2025
to November 27, 2025

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), GIZ India, and the Uttarakhand Forest Department are jointly organising a 1 day workshop on “Building a Forestry Carbon Credit Roadmap for Uttarakhand" under the RECAP4NDC project.

The workshop is scheduled for Thursday, 27 November 2025, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Hyatt Centric, Rajpur Road, Dehradun.

Financing Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) under RECAP4NDC

November 6, 2025
to November 6, 2025

India has made significant international commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) to combat climate change and land degradation. The national goal is to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) by restoring 26 million hectares by 2030, directly contributing to India’s NDC target of sequestering 2.5–3 billion tonnes of 2.5–3 billion tonnes of Carbon Dioxide through enhanced forest and tree cover.

Connecting Policy and Finance for Landscape Restoration in Gujarat under RECAP4NDC

September 9, 2025
to September 9, 2025

Breaking the REDD + Deadlock: Towards India-Specific Guidelines for Carbon Finance in Degradation-Dominated Forests

July 11, 2025
to July 11, 2025

India’s forest landscapes are highly diverse, spanning tropical rainforests, dry deciduous zones, and alpine ecosystems. Unlike many countries where deforestation is the primary concern, forest degradation due to overgrazing, firewood extraction, invasive species, and unsustainable tourism is more prevalent across India’s forest cover.

TERI signs an MOU with Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal

June 23, 2025
to June 23, 2025

TERI and IIFM (Indian Institute for Forest management, Bhopal) have entered an MOU, which was signed by Dr Vibha Dhawan, Director General, TERI and Dr K Ravichandran, Director, IIFM. The event took place on 23 June 2025 at the TERI's office in India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

Restoring Degraded Forest Landscapes: India's Approach to Sustainable Forest Management and Climate Resilience

May 5, 2025
to May 9, 2025

TERI and MOEFCC jointly organised a side event at the 20th session of the UN Forum on Forests on 6th May 2025, which is being held at the United Nations Headquarters, New York, United States, from 5-9 May 2025. The topic of the event was "Restoring Degraded Forest Landscapes: India's Approach to Sustainable Forest Management and Climate Resilience".

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News

5-day workshop on climate-smart farming in Himalayas ends at Mohal

January 17, 2026 |
January 22, 2026
The Tribune

Sessions on modern agricultural technologies added a future-oriented perspective to the programme. Mr Sayanta Ghosh, Associate Fellow, Land Resources Division, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi, spoke on carbon revenue mechanisms and digital MRV pathways.

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How to Turn SC’s Mandate on Aravalli into Ground Reality

December 30, 2025
| Dr Vibha Dhawan
| Outlook Business

SC's Aravalli ruling offers a science-led path to balance mining, restoration and livelihoods, writes Dr Vibha Dhawan, Director General, TERI.

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Aravalli Hills alive with cautious optimism despite SC order

December 24, 2025
| Dr Vibha Dhawan
| The Economic Times

The Supreme Court's recent order offers a new framework for the Aravalli range. With guidelines now in place, the task ahead lies in transparent implementation, institutional coordination and sustained scientific oversight, writes Dr Vibha Dhawan, Director General, TERI.

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Explained: India’s Biodiversity Credits Can Succeed If Communities Are Involved

October 25, 2025
| Mr Sayanta Ghosh
,
| Dr Jitendra Vir Sharma
| The Quint

Biodiversity credits are financial instruments designed to channel funding from individuals and companies towards the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of biodiversity-rich areas write Mr Sayanta Ghosh, Associate Fellow and Dr Jitendra Vir Sharma, Senior Director, Land Resources Division, TERI.

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Global REDD+ standards fail local forests

August 20, 2025
| Mr Sayanta Ghosh
,
| Dr Jitendra Vir Sharma
| Mongabay India

Unlocking India’s REDD+ potential would channel climate finance into one of the most diverse forest estates, benefiting millions of forest-dependent people and meeting climate goals, write Mr Sayanta Ghosh, Associate Fellow and Dr Jitendra Vir Sharma, Senior Director, Land Resources Division, TERI.

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Training workshop on forest and climate change held at SKUAST-K

August 6, 2025 |
August 6, 2025
Rising Kashmir

The Land Resources Division of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), with support from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India, held a three-day training workshop titled "Forest and Climate Change: Opportunities and Challenges of Adaptation and Mitigation" at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir (SKUAST-K).

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Policy

Biodiversity and Land Restoration in India: A Narrative of India's Sustainability Efforts Vis-à-vis the World

November 12, 2024
    

Meeting the challenges of human-wildlife conflict reconciliation in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve

February 6, 2020

Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) leads to the bearing of direct as well as indirect economic costs of conflict by the communities. Such losses can seriously dent the incomes of concerned community members and result in increased antagonism towards conservation in general.

Carbon finance: Solution for mitigating human–wildlife conflict in and around critical tiger habitats of India

January 29, 2020

Our study in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve in Uttar Pradesh indicates to the fact that use of Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards (CCBS) approach to generate carbon finance can yield 8 times more finance than just considering the aspect of carbon sequestration.

Minimum Support Price of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) and Its Sustainable Harvest: A Social Safety Measure for MFP Collectors in India

February 15, 2018

Forests in India are treated primarily as social and environmental resource, and only secondarily, as commercial resource. More than 300 million people derive full or partial livelihood and sustenance need from forests. Many a times, communities are compelled to harvest forest produce unsustainably due to lack of adequate finance to meet their day to day life supporting needs. With such large population dependent on forest resources, the minor forest produce (MFP) sector is India’s largest unorganized sector.

Persistent organic pollutants in Indian environment: a wake-up call for concerted action

January 11, 2018

India has a comprehensive apparatus of environmental laws. However, the lack of an integrated approach to the regulation of chemicals, poor management of pollution, and the fundamentally retrospective vision have resulted in ineffective implementation of the laws as demonstrated by the example of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in the environment.

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Services

Carbon sequestration potential and biodiversity assessment

We undertake study for companies to estimate the carbon sink and other co-benefits including the biodiversity conservation from the plantation activities carried out in and around the companies premises.

Capacity building for management of natural resources

We undertake work on various institutional issues relating to participatory forest management, and have major interests in the study of forest-based livelihoods and benefit-sharing at the community level.

Team

Mr Shailesh Ganeshrao Tembhurnikar

Distinguished Fellow, Land Resources

Dr Jitendra Vir Sharma

Senior Director, Water Waste and Natural Resources

Dr Syed Arif Wali

Associate Director, Centre for Sustainable Land Management

Mr Varun Grover

Area Convenor, Sustainable Services Management

Mr Sayanta Ghosh

Area Convenor, Centre for Geospatial Technology Application

Ms Neha Sharma

Area Convener, Centre for Forest Management and Governance

Mr Pranjul Chauhan

Area Convenor, Centre for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services