The Ecological Restoration Alliance invites you to its next webinar: Compensatory Afforestation in India: Trajectory and Contemporary Debates. Here, Kanchi Kohli unpacks the idea of compensatory afforestation and explores the debates that shape forest land governance in India today.
You can register on this link, or scan the QR code on the poster below.
Date: October 27, 2026
Time: 4 PM
Venue: Zoom Meeting
More about the Talk:
Since the 1980s, the use of forest lands for “non-forest use” in India has required compensatory afforestation as a means to offset the loss. How has this mandatory requirement evolved since it was first introduced? How effective has it been?
In this talk, Kanchi Kohli maps the evolution of the idea of compensatory afforestation. She explores when this mechanism was introduced within the legal framework to regulate diversion of forest for “non-forest uses” – plantations, industry, infrastructure and rehabilitation.
Kanchi also discusses the tensions and debates that continue to be relevant for decision making around the governance of forest lands, including availability of lands and funds, replicability of forest ecosystems and identification of afforestation sites.
About the Speaker:
Kanchi Kohli is a researcher and educator who works at the intersection of natural resource governance, public policy and global frameworks shaping discourses related to climate change, forests and biodiversity. Her policy research and practice explore the links and gaps between law, development, sustainability and social justice. Over the last three decades, she has worked on several research, education and practice based projects at the intersection of forest rights and forest governance, including the 2025 study ‘Securing Rights, Enabling Futures: Policy Lessons from Forest Rights Act and Future Pathways’.
She curated and hosted ‘Commons Sensing’, a podcast that unpacks conceptual and practical intersection of commons, communities, natural resources and collective action.
She has also authored several reports, academic research papers and popular articles as part of her work, including the coursebook Development of Environmental Laws in India (Cambridge University Press). She has also been part of comparative and interdisciplinary research and practice based on projects in Asia and Africa which involve community land governance and indigenous rights. Kanchi teaches courses and modules related to environment and forest law, climate change, public policy and development at government training institutes and universities. She is currently a Distinguished Research Fellow at Environment Law Research Centre, Macquarie University, Sydney. She has been a Fulbright Scholar at Boalt Law School, University of Berkeley, California.