'Familial Forestry' Initiative
About the Concept
The concept of Familial Forestry addresses the domestic adoption of trees and caring for them as their green member of the family so that trees and environmental aspects can become a part of the family's consciousness.
Familial Forestry of Rajasthan, India is a unique concept that relates a tree with a family, making it a green "family member”.
-UNCCD, 2021
Background
Dr. L.K. Sharma and his team took the initiative at CURAJ for the concept of Familial Forestry in 2018. Previously, it was started by Shyamsunder Jyani in 2006 in Rajasthan state. Dr. Sharma and his team continuously working on the CURAJ campus and its neighboring villages. In 2022, he started a SELFIE CAMPAIGN (Selfie with Green Member of Family) with CURAJ students. By joining this campaign, the students plant a tree in their surroundings like house boundaries, school campuses in the form of Institutional forests, on public land, and on agricultural land as a part of Agro-forestry and take care of them like their family members.
Inititiatives by others
Recently, Shyam Sundar Jyani, a Rajasthan-based climate activist won the prestigious United Nations' Land for Life Award for his environment conservation concept, Familial Forestry. The winner was announced on 17th June 2021 which is the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought by UNCCD. This movement involved more than a million families from more than 15,000 villages of desert-prone northwest Rajasthan. More than a million families from over 15,000 villages of desert-prone northwest Rajasthan have a plantation of 3.5 million saplings through this concept since 2006.