| Programmes | Features | Implications for Adaptation |
| Greening India Mission | Enhancing carbon sinks in sustainably managed forests and other ecosystems. Enhancing resilience of vulnerable species/ecosystems to changing climate. Enabling adaptation of forest-dependent communities to climatic variability. | Promotes ecosystem as well as community resilience through targeted activities for promoting adaptation through regeneration, restoration, tree cover enhancement that help connect forest fragments and also promotes livelihood diversification activities, which reduces the vulnerability of forest dependent communities. Promotion of exotic species and monoculture plantations may enhance the vulnerability. |
| National Forest Action Plan 1999 | Protect existing forest resources. Improve forest productivity. Reduce total demand for biomass. Strengthen the policy and institutional framework. Expand the forest area. | Conservation and protection of forest resources, thereby biodiversity which has positive implications for climate change adaptation. Improved participation of communities in management of forests, thereby providing an opportunity for utilizing strategic indigenous knowledge on adaptation. Inappropriate choice of species such as exotics/invasive species may increase vulnerability. |
| National Afforestation Programme | Develop forest resources with people’s participation, with focus on improvement in livelihoods of forest-fringe communities. Aims to accelerate the on-going process of devolving forest protection, management and development functions to decentralized institutions. | |
| Protected Areas | The NFP has advocated maintaining genetic continuity among the Protected Areas. The Wildlife Protection Act has included two categories of PAs, namely conservation and community reserves in its 2002 amendment. | PAs are key to buffering unpredictable impacts of impending climate change as they help retain intact patches of forest, avoiding fragmentation which is an adaptation strategy. PAs also aim at conserving biodiversity and ecosystems, which is also an adaptation strategy. Also, protection measures against fire and invasive species and habitat amelioration interventions are additionally climate change mitigation measures. |
| Compensatory Afforestation | In case of diversion of forest land to non-forest purposes—the user will identify land and develop forest and transfer it to forest dept. or pay the cost of afforestation (2 ha of afforestation for every ha of forest converted). | Conservation, protection and improved regeneration would potentially reduce vulnerability. Risk of monocultures raised being prone to fire and pest attacks. Risk of loss of natural forests with biodiversity and livelihood values. |