Kolkata: The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is set to introduce an Indian standard for the restoration of mangrove ecosystems, marking the country’s first such set of guidelines for the restoration of biodiversity, which will help streamline restoration efforts in the Sundarbans. The draft Indian Standard, titled ‘Restoration of Mangrove Ecosystem — Guidelines’, was made public in March and has received hundreds of inputs since then.A stakeholder meeting at Jharkhali on June 11 also gave the grassroots communities a chance to participate and contribute their suggestions.The BIS draft has received hundreds of inputs since March. “We have received a variety of feedback — while some were technical, others asked for more detailing and specifics. We will try to incorporate these, but since this is a national document, it might not go too deep into specifics,” said Kumar Sourabh, deputy director, BIS. The major challenge while working on it was to make a uniform standard for the entire country. “The demography and geography of the areas differ a lot. Even within the Sundarbans, the factors change,” said another scientist with BIS.The two major issues that came out were the use of polythene packets mentioned in the draft standard while planting and the integration of livelihood options in the restoration process, said Sabyasachi Dhar, senior director, BIS, Kolkata. “Instead of using poly bags during the seeding plantation, it was suggested that cloth bags or biodegradable bags should be used. The concerned dept of BIS agreed to incorporate the same,” he said. “During the interaction, it was suggested that it would be helpful if fruit-bearing trees could be planted on the other side of the mangrove plantations. This will be beneficial financially,” Dhar added.While the initial Indian standard on mangrove restoration will be in text, the stakeholders also asked for audio-visual elements to be developed for ease of use.A set of guidelines for mangrove restoration has been a long-standing demand of stakeholders who have been working on the ground. Without a best practice manual, the plantations were erratic and “just for the sake of it,” they said.Plantation is an integral part of restoration. But mindless plantation does not help, said Punyasloke Bhadury, senior professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata. “Planting the right plants or a combination of plants at the right spot creates a micro-ecosystem that attracts fauna like small fish and crabs. This eventually restores the ecosystem,” said Bhadury, who is also the coordinating and lead author of the United Nations’s Third World Ocean Assessment.But will these guidelines be mandatory to follow? “All Indian standards are voluntary in nature. BIS can only give a set of Indian standards but cannot make it mandatory,” said Sourabh. “It is for the govt depts to see if these should be made mandatory.”Bhadury, who is also a principal member (invited) of the Biodiversity Sectional Committee, BIS, said there was a plan to approach the concerned depts and ministries to make the guidelines binding. “We will approach the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). We will also do the same with the three state forest depts that have their own mangrove cells — West Bengal, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. These cells can then come up with state-specific manuals, which will then become mandatory,” he added.The carbon credit market is now growing at a fast pace with globally and nationally established protocols, and this manual will help all CSR initiatives to follow the best practices to get the most out of their plantation drives, said Bhadury. While this document does not focus on carbon credits and only mentions it, Dhar agreed that it is an important aspect. “This can also benefit the communities financially. A proposal will be sent to incorporate carbon credits as a suggestion to make the restoration process economically viable. However, the focus of this document is the process of restoration of mangroves,” he added.Integration of fruit-bearing trees on the landward side | Creates an immediate economic incentive and livelihood for locals
