CSC Blue Sky
Pledge by
Cargo Service Center Group (CSC)
1.08 million restored trees as part of CSC Group's commitment to the Blue Sky initiative
- Type
- Restoring & Growing, Enabling
- This pledge will take place from
- 2022 to 2030
- Location
- India
Pledge overview
CSC aims to plant 1.08 million trees by 2030.
This pledge is part of our overall commitment to the Blue Sky initiative of The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA). The TIACA initiative has eight key objectives with 30 priorities grouped under Environment, Society and Culture & Leadership.
Under the Environment group, the three key objectives are:
1. Decarbonize
2. Eliminate Waste
3. Protect biodiversity
We believe that our pledge to plant 1.08 million trees will help us achieve these objectives significantly. We also believe that our pledge will support the commitment of increasing India’s green cover from 27% to 33% by 2030, as committed by our union government.
We have evaluated and identified two areas where we will choose to work
1. The forest and surrounding areas of south Gujarat near Saputara
2. The forest and surrounding areas of Uttarakhand near Munsyari
The forest areas of south Gujarat are moist deciduous in nature and there has been significant loss in the area due to forest fires, road construction and human activity. Our long-term association in the area through the several schools we support through our CSR program for tribal children has given us a deep insight into how restoration of forest landscape can aid in regeneration of soil, water and biodiversity in the area. We will be partnering with the community and the school organizations to drive this activity.
The forests of higher Himalaya were originally biodiverse but over a period of time a monoculture of pine has taken over many landscapes, where old birch and oak trees have been replaced with pine – which has proved to be an invasive species and also a cause for major forest fires. We have been supporting work with local farming communities in the area for several years and will engage them to replant areas of forest land with bio-diverse native species and also aid in agroforestry.
Actions in this pledge
-
Restoring and growing trees and forest landscapes
Supporting actions
- Reforestation
- Re-establishment of forest through planting and/or deliberate seeding on land classified as forest, that has been degraded or where trees are unlikely to regenerate naturally
- Agroforestry
- Activities that establish and manage the integration of trees into agricultural landscapes, silvopastoral systems, farming in forests and along forest margins and tree-crop production
- Watershed protection and erosion control
- Establishment and enhancement of forests on very steep sloping land, along water courses, in areas that naturally flood and around critical water bodies
Additional details
Reforestation – IEF has been in discussions with local Van Panchayat in Munsyari area – these are local bodies mandated to protect community forests. Many of these forests face fire threats from illegal poachers and hunters, we are working with them to restore some of these burnt forest land with biodiverse local species such as birch, oak, horsechestnut, rhododendrons. We are hopeful to work with Ghorpatta and Bernia village Van panchayats starting December this year to prepare for planting in spring and monsoon 2023.
IEF and Sandipani will work with villages in the area to replant community forest areas starting 2022.
Watershed Protection and Erosion control – Sandipani has been working with local tribal communities and youth for several years in the Saputara area forests. We are working with them currently to begin an awareness program with local tribal families for them to regenerate their soil quality and water sources. We expect the training to begin in January 2023.
Agroforestry – IEF and Sandipani will work with farmers in the area to create avenues for awareness and action on agroforestry. IEF has already conducted several workshops on the same with local farmers and aims to plant first batch of fruit trees in early spring 2023.
Restoring & Growing
- Trees
- 1.08 million
-
Enabling activities for trees and forest landscapes
Supporting actions
- Nursery and seedling development
- Establish tree nurseries, including actions such as identification and collection of seeds and/or growing seedlings
- Sustainable forest management
- Activities that support the stewardship and use of forests (including by local communities and indigenous peoples), to maintain their biological diversity, productivity, and regeneration capacity, as well as their potential to fulfil relevant ecological economic and social functions
- Market development for sustainable forest products
- Activities that create markets and demand for ecologically and socially responsible timber and non-timber forest and agroforestry products, e.g. capacity-building for the harvesting and processing of agroforestry products, forest certification standards, etc.
- Education and capacity building
- Forest / tree species conservation and restoration education programmes, targeted educational and behaviour change campaigns, training and capacity building, including promotion of local and traditional knowledge and practices
- Community mobilisation
- Community mobilisation and engagement activities for conservation, restoration and reforestation, including enabling systems of community governance, etc.
- Youth engagement
- Engagement of young people and/or youth networks to catalyse a restoration generation
Additional details
IEF and Sandipani will set up initial nurseries for fruit trees and local tree species – they will aim to employ only local women in the nurseries to create opportunities for women groups in their respective geographies.
IEF will be working with Van panchayats on the community forest management in the Munsyari area.
Sandipani is an education trust and therefore will engage in training and awareness of youth in restoration activities in Saputara area – details of this and partnership for this still work in progress.
IEF has been working with farmers for harvesting forest honey and have trained 2500 farmers in Munsyari area already. They will now scale this work to engage villagers across the entire block of Munsyari .
Enabling
Our ecologically and socially responsible approach
1. Our plantation of horsechestnut, oak, birch and rhododendrons which are native Himalayan species will enhance the current ecosystem and, in some cases, where they have been cut and replaced with pine trees which have then burnt in forest fires, it will give us an opportunity to restore native species and augment biodiversity.
2. In the forests that surround the Saputara area the moist deciduous trees have off late suffered from fires and climate change. We intend to work with Dang district administration through Sandipani to restore these forest areas. The tribal youth will be our major changemakers here.
3. The Himalayan forests give ample opportunity for forest produce such as wild himalayan forest and flower honey. IEF has been training the farmers for several years in honey harvesting and bee keeping. We believe planting species such as horsechestnut will allow for local community to not just grow a whole new forest but also earn from bee keeping in the forest area.
4. In Saputara there is a massive opportunity to revive the ethno-medico-botany for curating and harvesting herbs and local medicinal plants. We are currently studying the prospects of the same.
5. In Munsyari the plantation for fruit trees such as citrus, malta, peach and plum will not only help improve biodiversity but will create additional income for village and farming communities.
Our results tracking
For forest land and biodiversity -we will work with the state forest department to track the progress
For community forest - we intend to work with van panchayat and tribal councils
For Youth awareness and engagement - we are in the process of identifying the best way to do this
For Farmer engagement- we will measure with the numbers trained and also engaged in sustainable forest produce
Ecological metrics
Protection of biodiversity, forest land restored, number of community forest protected
Social metrics
Awareness and engagement of youth in restoration activities – number of youth trained and engaged and number of farmers engaged
Our system of accreditation
We will working under the larger TIACA Blue Sky program that will evaluate our overall commitments and this pledge
Our partners
In Saputara we will be working with a not-for-profit organization – Sandipani Vidya Sankul Saputara, who we have been partnering with for education of tribal children for several years.
In Himalaya we will be working with not for profit – section 8 social enterprise company – IEF Foundation who have been training farming communities in the area for several years and work closely with farmers on nature-based agriculture solutions.
Our locations
We are working at locations across India.
Saputara area – South Gujarat, western India, western ghats, Sahyadri mountains– forest type - moist deciduous
Munsyari area – Uttarakhand, north India, Himalaya – forest type – himalayan deciduous, alpine