India’s landmark land restoration progress and call for global finance take centre stage at UN desertification summit in Mongolia as the country nears its 2030 Bonn Challenge target.
Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav on Monday highlighted India’s significant achievements in land restoration at a side event organised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) during the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. He announced that India brought 21.76 million hectares of land under restoration between 2011 and 2020, generating approximately 1.22 billion person-days of employment.
The figures come from India’s Second Progress Report on the Bonn Challenge, released earlier this year. Yadav described land restoration as an established national priority that is integral to sustainable land management, biodiversity conservation, climate action and rural development. “India views restoration not as a standalone intervention, but as an essential component of sustainable and resilient development,” he said.
India’s Bonn Challenge Commitment and Progress
India is among the major global pledgers to the Bonn Challenge, a 2011 initiative aimed at restoring 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested landscapes by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030. In 2015, India initially committed to restoring 13 million hectares by 2020 with an additional 8 million hectares by 2030. At UNCCD COP14 hosted by India in 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the national target to 26 million hectares by 2030 – one of the largest restoration pledges in the world.
The latest report shows the country has already achieved about 84 per cent of that enhanced target. Restoration covered planted forests, natural regeneration, silviculture, agroforestry and mangrove restoration. Telangana led the states with 4.18 million hectares restored, largely through agroforestry, followed by Madhya Pradesh (3.78 million hectares), Odisha (2.64 million hectares), Gujarat (1.73 million hectares) and Andhra Pradesh (1.61 million hectares). All 28 states and seven Union Territories contributed.
Yadav noted that the assessment goes beyond simply counting hectares. It captures work across forests, agriculture, soil and water conservation and other land-use systems, recognising that restoration must match the ecological and socio-economic character of each landscape. The results, he said, prove restoration can deliver both environmental recovery and socio-economic benefits by reviving degraded lands while creating jobs and supporting rural livelihoods.
Multi-Sectoral Programmes Driving Results on the Ground
India has pursued a multi-sectoral, landscape-based approach. The Green India Mission is expanding forest and tree cover, strengthening ecosystem services and building climate resilience. Substantial resources flow through the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) for compensatory afforestation and related activities. The Nagar Van Yojana extends greening to urban and peri-urban areas. These are complemented by watershed development under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (which has treated more than 27 million hectares), agroforestry, soil and water conservation, and community-based efforts. Joint Forest Management covers large areas, and campaigns such as “Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam” have driven massive plantation drives.
Yadav stressed that restoration cannot be delivered by any single programme or sector. It requires convergence across landscapes, sectors and levels of governance – from local communities and states to the Union government. Looking beyond 2030, India’s goal is not only to restore more land but to restore better, finance better and deliver measurable, lasting outcomes. This will demand innovative financing to mobilise greater public and private investment, stronger regional and international partnerships for knowledge and technology sharing, and sustained participation by the communities that depend on and manage these landscapes.
Strengthening Monitoring and the Next Reporting Cycle
The reporting process has highlighted the need to improve systems for tracking restoration outcomes, financial flows and livelihood impacts. India is therefore launching the next reporting cycle for 2021–2025 in collaboration with the ICFRE Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Land Management and IUCN. The new cycle will focus on three key dimensions – area restored, financial flows and employment generated – to strengthen the national evidence base.
India’s drylands cover about 228 million hectares and support agriculture, livestock and rural livelihoods. According to the India Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas, nearly 97.85 million hectares, or about 29.8 per cent of the country’s geographical area, are affected by land degradation and desertification. Restoration efforts address this challenge while contributing to Land Degradation Neutrality targets and broader climate and biodiversity goals.
Call for Global Finance and India’s Blended Model
At a separate Ministerial Dialogue on Innovative Financial Mechanisms for Healthy Land and Drought Resilience at the same COP17, Yadav called for diversified, adequate, predictable and sustained international finance for land restoration and drought resilience. “Land restoration is not a cost, but an investment in food, water, biodiversity, livelihoods and long-term resilience,” he said. He underlined that addressing desertification, land degradation and drought at scale requires finance beyond domestic public budgets and stronger public-private partnerships.
India has developed a successful blended green-finance framework that converges public and private resources for climate adaptation, sustainable land use, forestry, agriculture, afforestation and biodiversity conservation. The country’s unique compensatory conservation regime and “whole of government, whole of society” have helped advance Land Degradation Neutrality, Yadav said. Yet domestic efforts, he emphasised, cannot substitute for additional international finance that is continuous, verifiable and connected to local communities.
Context of COP17 and India’s Broader Engagement
COP17, hosted by Mongolia from 17 to 28 August 2026 under the theme “Restoring Land. Restoring Hope,” coincides with the UN International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists. The conference brings together nearly 200 Parties to accelerate action on desertification, land degradation and drought. India has also used the platform to launch its first Guide to Grasslands and Other Open Natural Ecosystems, stressing science-based conservation of grasslands, scrublands and ravines alongside forests. These ecosystems support unique biodiversity and pastoral livelihoods and are vital for climate resilience.
Yadav concluded that India’s experience shows ambitious commitments can be turned into measurable outcomes when backed by strong institutions, sustained financing, sound science, robust monitoring and partnerships across sectors and levels of governance. India remains committed to working with international partners to advance restoration at scale and looks forward to collaborative progress on this shared global agenda.
The achievements position India as a leader in translating large-scale restoration pledges into on-ground results that benefit both ecosystems and people, even as the country continues to push for the international support needed to meet the full challenge of land degradation worldwide.
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Tags: land restoration, Bonn Challenge, Bhupender Yadav, UNCCD COP17, Ulaanbaatar, degraded land, employment generation, Green India Mission, CAMPA, drought resilience, international finance, Land Degradation Neutrality, India environment, sustainable land management,
