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India's Green Credit Programme (GCP) — Tree Plantation & Ecosystem Restoration Credits
India · Dehradun · See the India profile
Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 90% 27/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice
India's national Green Credit Programme (Oct 2023) issues credits for restoring degraded land: by early 2025, 17 states had registered 57,700+ ha, credited only after 5 yrs at 40% canopy density — though reviewers question its methodology and its oil/coal registrants.
57,700+ ha
Degraded forest land registered (by Feb 2025)
267
Plantation blocks registered (by March 2024)
17,000+ ha
Hectares registered (March 2024)
17
States participating
384
Entities enrolled (late 2024)
40
Public-sector undertakings enrolled (late 2024)
15,200+ ha
Madhya Pradesh hectares registered
11,361 ha
Andhra Pradesh hectares registered
6,760 ha
Gujarat hectares registered
5,648 ha
Jharkhand hectares registered
4,708 ha
Tamil Nadu hectares registered
4,108 ha
Bihar hectares registered
40 %
Canopy density threshold for credit issuance (after 5 years)
Details
- Maturity
- Scaling
- Promoter
- Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC); Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), Programme Administrator
- Period
- 2023-present
- Keywords
- biodiversity credits, forest and ecosystem restoration, degraded-land tree plantation
Context
India's Green Credit Programme (GCP) was notified under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 on 12 October 2023, part of the government's Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) initiative, with ICFRE (Dehradun) appointed as programme administrator.
Objectives
Reward verified degraded-land restoration outcomes rather than planting activity alone, by tying credits to a five-year, 40%-canopy-density milestone.
Activities
Detailed methodology for the flagship tree-plantation and degraded-land-restoration component was issued in February 2024 and revised again in August 2025; entities register plantation blocks across Indian states.
Results
By March 2024 the programme had 267 registered plantation blocks covering over 17,000 hectares; by February 2025 this had grown to more than 57,700 hectares across 17 states, led by Madhya Pradesh (15,200+ ha), Andhra Pradesh (11,361 ha), Gujarat (6,760 ha), Jharkhand (5,648 ha), Tamil Nadu (4,708 ha) and Bihar (4,108 ha). As of late 2024, 384 entities had enrolled, including 40 public-sector undertakings.
Conclusions
The programme's credibility is contested: oil, gas and coal companies are prominent among early registrants, and independent commentary (Mongabay-India, IMPRI, CarbonCopy) has criticised the methodology for lacking rigour and offering little clarity on credit pricing or exchange. No independently verified biodiversity or carbon outcomes have been published to date, since the first five-year credit-issuance milestones had not yet come due as of this review.
Implementation
- Indicative cost
- Medium (€50k–€500k)
- Time to results
- Long (> 3 years)
- Staffing & skills
- Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) - programme administrator
Conditions for success
- A clear legal basis via Environment (Protection) Act 1986 notification
- Milestone-based verification (5-year, 40% canopy density) intended to reward outcomes rather than planting activity alone
- A national registry spanning multiple states
Common failure modes
- Independent reviewers (Mongabay-India, IMPRI, CarbonCopy) have criticised the underlying methodology for lacking rigour and offering little clarity on credit pricing or exchange
- Oil, gas and coal companies are prominent among early registrants, raising credibility and greenwashing concerns
Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.
Data sources
Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.
- C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-08-05
- Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC); Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), Programme Administrator — accessed 2026-08-05
- Green Credit Programme — official portal (MoEFCC/ICFRE) — accessed 2026-08-05
- Mongabay-India: Green credit scheme rolls out with oil and coal leading the way (Dec 2024) — accessed 2026-08-05
- Business Standard: Over 57,000 ha degraded forest land marked for green credit scheme (Feb 2025) — accessed 2026-08-05
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