New Delhi: European pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca recently pledged $71 million towards a forestry initiative in Meghalaya, where it will plant and maintain 64 million trees. This commitment is part of the company’s broader global forest program, where it aims to plant 200 million trees across six continents by 2030.
The initiative, named Regeneration Meghalaya, falls under the Meghalaya Reforestation and Sustainable Livelihoods Project. AstraZeneca will collaborate with Earthbanc, Earthtree, Worldview Impact India, and the Hill Farmers Shiitake Mushroom Coop Society to implement a 30-year regenerative horticulture and agriculture project in the ecologically delicate Meghalaya region.
Currently, approximately 200,000 trees have been planted, with ongoing soil and water conservation efforts to facilitate the planting of millions more in 2024. The overarching goal is to assist Meghalayan farmers in restoring 22,670 hectares, fostering biodiversity, soil conservation, and offering climate and catchment health co-benefits.
Furthermore, the initiative aims to promote sustainable farming and agroforestry, aligning with Meghalaya’s aromatics policy and organic and natural farming policy. Monitoring will include biophysical indicators such as biomass, soil organic carbon, land productivity, and land cover, in accordance with the UNCCD land degradation neutrality global mechanism.
The project, part of the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance’s “living labs for nature, people, and planet,” is expected to be the largest in the network. AstraZeneca, Earthbanc, and other partners follow a science-based framework for landscape regeneration co-developed with the European Forest Institute and the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance.
Juliette White, Vice President for Global Sustainability at AstraZeneca, emphasised the company’s commitment to planting and maintaining 200 million trees by 2030. She noted that the collaboration with Earthbanc in India aims to restore nature in a degraded biodiversity hotspot while supporting farming livelihoods.
Tom Duncan, CEO of Earthbanc, praised Meghalaya and India for their impressive policies and programs. Louise Baker, Managing Director of the global mechanism of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, highlighted the project’s focus on developing sustainable value chains to stop land degradation and increase land cover, productivity, and soil organic carbon.
British High Commissioner to India, Alex Ellis, stressed the importance of protecting, restoring, and sustainably managing nature as a crucial element of India’s carbon sink target and a priority for England at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai. He stressed the collective responsibility of companies, governments, and citizens in addressing climate change.
