Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority(CAMPA) – CAMPA Act 2016

What is CAMPA?

The CAMPA bill is a comprehensive legislative framework for managing and utilizing funds accruing to the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA). The entire amount collected as “compensatory afforestation” lies with the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change.

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The compensatory afforestation fund receives money from persons who divert forest land to non-forestry uses. The money is then used to conserve, regenerate, or improve forest resources and provide green cover instead of forests redirected to other services. Below you will learn about the objectives of the CAMPA Act, CAMPA Fund, State CAMPA, the Structure of the Governing body of State CAMPA, its significance, and key provisions-

CAMPA Act Objectives

The main objective of the CAMPA Act is to ensure speedy afforestation and regeneration of forest areas diverted for non-forest purposes and raise the country’s forest cover.

The Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) shall be used for:

• Afforestation, regeneration, assisted natural regeneration, catchment area treatment plan, and wildlife protection works in degraded forest areas, including Reserved Forests, Protected Forests, Conservation Reserves, Community Reserves, outside forests, and non-forest areas.
• Ensuring livelihood security and augmentation of income of local people through the generation of community assets based on waste/degraded land.
• Afforestation, regeneration, or assisted natural regeneration on private lands subject to conditions that may be prescribed by the Central Government.

What is State CAMPA?

The instrumenting body or the authority responsible for performing and fastening the activities of the establishment of funds under each State’s public accounts and India’s public accounts. In 2008, after the Supreme Court’s invention, State CAMPA was established in each UT/State of India. The State CAMPA is responsible for administering the money received from SCAF. After the administration, the State CAMPA utilizes the collected amount for

• Wildlife conservation and protection
• Infrastructure development
• Assisted natural regeneration
• Compensatory afforestation and similar activities.

Structure of the Governing body of State CAMPA

The structure of the Governing body of the State CAMPA is as follows-

List of Members	State CAMPA Designation
Secretary (Forests)	Member Secretary
Chief Minister	Chairperson
Chief Wildlife Warden	Member
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests	Member
Principal Secretary (Planning)	Member
Principal Secretary (Finance)	Member
Chief Secretary	Member
Minister of Planning	Member
Minister of Finance	Member
Minister of Forests	Member

What is CAMPA Fund?

The CAMPA Fund is a monetary compensation value deposited by the authorities along with the deposition of the land’s net value per the CAMPA Law for diverting the forest land for non-forest purposes. The creation of the CAMPA fund was ordered by the Supreme Court of India in 2020. In order to manage the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF), CAMPA was established in 2004. However, this acts as CAMPA Fund’s custodian.

In August 2019, 47,436 crores of Rupees were handed by the Indian government to the various Indian States as CAMPA Funds with the primary objective of helping the country in achieving the afforestation objective. These funds are part of the compensatory Afforestation and are long-pending dues collected from the industries as environmental compensation for nearly a decade.

How will the CAMPA Act help increase forest cover in India?

The fund will be used for compensatory afforestation, additional compensatory afforestation, penal compensatory afforestation, the net present value of forest (NPV), and other activities.

• It will help speed up the implementation of compensatory afforestation and other related activities on the ground.

• It will help bring investments in large-scale plantation and forest conservation activities.

The funds will be utilized for afforestation, regeneration, conservation, and protection of forest areas and improvement in wildlife habitats. They will also be used to meet the cost of other works and activities concerning compensatory afforestation.

CAMPA Act Key Provision

The key provision that the CAMPA Act brings in is using this fund to meet the expenses incurred by the state governments on afforestation, rehabilitation of wildlife habitats, and eco-restoration activities. The Act puts a cap on the money used for compensatory afforestation.

The CAMPA Act will give a boost to green coverage in India. Afforestation and eco-restoration activities are imminent to reduce carbon emissions, improve air quality and mitigate climate change. The money from this fund can be used for undertaking various related activities.

CAMPA UPSC

The CAMPA Act is an important topic from the UPSC Exam perspective, and various questions have been asked on this topic in UPSC Previous Year Question Paper. This topic is related to Conservation, and candidates can expect questions from the CAMPA act in their GS Paper 3 and GS Paper 2. We have provided all the important information related to this act, and candidates must go through it properly to prepare for the upcoming UPSC Exam.

CAMPA Act UPSC Questions

Question: Which of the following statements is/are correct about the Compensatory Afforestation Fund?

1. The Fund will be primarily spent on afforestation to compensate for loss of forest cover, regeneration of forest ecosystem, wildlife protection and infrastructure development.
2. The Bill also establishes the National and State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authorities.

Select the correct answer from codes given below:

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: (c)