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Good practice Imported

India National CAMPA — Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority

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Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 64% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

India's mandatory developer-pays compensatory afforestation scheme (CAF Act 2016); planted 178,261 ha (85% of target) against Rs 38,516 crore (~US$4.6 bn) of approved expenditure in 2019–2024, with Supreme Court oversight documenting monoculture and monitoring gaps.

38,516 crore INR (~US$4.6bn)
Approved expenditure (2019-20 to 2023-24)
29,311 crore INR
Funds released (2019-20 to 2023-24)
26,001 crore INR (67.5%)
Funds utilized (2019-20 to 2023-24)
178,261 hectares
Area planted (2019-20 to 2023-24)
209,297 hectares
Area planting target (2019-20 to 2023-24)
54,685 crore INR
Accumulated corpus (2023-24)
40-90 %
Plantation survival rate range

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
National CAMPA, Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change
Period
2016–present
Keywords
national government, forest governance, mandatory biodiversity offsets, compensatory afforestation

Context

India's Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Act, passed by Parliament in 2016, created the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) and 36 State CAMPAs. Agencies that divert forest land for non-forest uses must deposit compensatory afforestation charges into the fund, which finances new plantations or improvement of degraded forest, becoming operative in 2018.

Objectives

Ensure that forest land diverted for non-forest development purposes is compensated through funded afforestation or degraded-forest improvement, mandatorily financed by the diverting agency.

Activities

Collection of compensatory afforestation charges from land-diverting agencies into national and state-level funds; release of funds to states; plantation and degraded-forest-improvement activities carried out by state forest departments; periodic oversight reporting, including a 2024 Central Empowered Committee (CEC) review.

Results

Between 2019-20 and 2023-24, Rs 38,516 crore (~US$4.6 billion) was approved for expenditure, Rs 29,311 crore released and Rs 26,001 crore (67.5%) utilized. 178,261 hectares were planted against a target of 209,297 hectares (85% achievement), with Gujarat, Chandigarh, Mizoram and Madhya Pradesh (21,747 ha) reporting 100% target achievement. The accumulated corpus reached Rs 54,685 crore by 2023-24, but plantation survival rates varied widely (40-90%) across states.

Conclusions

The 2024 Central Empowered Committee report flagged persistent implementation weaknesses — variable survival rates, monoculture risk to biodiversity, ecological-corridor disruption, delayed fund release, inconsistent ecological monitoring, and fund utilization stuck at 67.5% — indicating the mechanism generates large financial flows and plantation area but faces significant execution and ecological-quality gaps.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Very high (> €5M) — Rs 38,516 crore (~US$4.6 billion) approved expenditure 2019-20 to 2023-24; Rs 29,311 crore released and Rs 26,001 crore (67.5%) actually utilized; accumulated corpus stood at Rs 54,685 crore in 2023-24 — a very large, statutorily mandated national fund.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act passed 2016, National/State CAMPA made operative in 2018, and the fund has operated continuously since with multi-year expenditure tracked through 2023-24.
Staffing & skills
National CAMPA under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, 36 State CAMPAs administering state-level plantation and fund utilization, State forest departments implementing plantation on the ground

Conditions for success

  • Timely release of funds from the central corpus to states
  • Adequate post-plantation monitoring and maintenance to secure survival rates
  • Avoiding monoculture in favour of ecologically diverse plantation design

Common failure modes

  • Only 67.5% of released funds were actually utilized (2019-20 to 2023-24)
  • Plantation survival rates ranged widely from 40-90% across states
  • Monoculture plantations risk reducing biodiversity and disrupting ecological corridors
  • Delayed fund release and inconsistent ecological monitoring flagged by the 2024 Central Empowered Committee report

Where it fits

Governance type
national statutory authority with state-level implementation
Scale
national (36 states/UTs)
Income level
lower-middle income

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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