India has invited nations across the globe to join the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA)—a platform spearheaded by India to protect seven major big cat species—during the 20th session of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF20) held in New York from May 5 to 9, 2025.
The International Big Cats Alliance (IBCA) aims to enhance international cooperation in research, conservation efforts, and capacity building among its member countries. At the UN platform, India highlighted its leadership in forest conservation and reaffirmed its commitment to the UN Strategic Plan for Forests 2017–2030 through its Voluntary National Contributions (VNCs).
Highlighting key achievements, India reported that 25.17% of its land is now covered by forests and trees. This progress is driven by efforts such as the Aravalli Green Wall restoration, a 7.86% rise in mangrove cover over the past decade, afforestation of more than 155,000 hectares under the Green India Mission, and the planting of 1.4 billion saplings through the Plant4Mother (Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam) campaign.
The Indian delegation, led by Sushil Kumar Awasthi, Director General of Forests and Special Secretary at the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), also advocated for action on outcomes from the Country-Led Initiative (CLI) hosted in Dehradun in October 2023. This initiative focused on forest fire prevention and certification, and India encouraged integrating similar CLI-led results into formal international frameworks.
India also joined a high-level discussion titled “Valuing Forest Ecosystems in National Policy and Strategy.” The delegation presented findings from pilot projects in states like Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, and several tiger reserves, which evaluated the benefits of ecosystems—including carbon capture, water services, and biodiversity—using international methodologies like the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA).
While acknowledging the difficulty of assessing non-market environmental benefits, India emphasized the urgent need to incorporate ecosystem valuations into national development plans to ensure better forest governance and lasting environmental resilience.
