Traditional agroforestry systems across South Asia have historically supported millions of smallholding farmers. Since, 2007 agroforestry has received attention in global climate discussions for its carbon sink potential. Agroforestry plays a defining role in offsetting greenhouse gases, providing sustainable livelihoods, localizing Sustainable Development Goals and achieving biodiversity targets. The review explores evidence of agroforestry systems for human well-being along with its climate adaptation and mitigation potential for South Asia. In particular, we explore key enabling and constraining conditions for mainstreaming agroforestry systems to use them to fulfill global climate mitigation targets. Nationally determined contributions submitted by South Asian countries to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change acknowledge agroforestry systems. In 2016, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation’s Resolution on Agroforestry brought consensus on developing national agroforestry policies by all regional countries and became a strong enabling condition to ensure effectiveness of using agroforestry for climate targets. Lack of uniform methodologies for creation of databases to monitor tree and soil carbon stocks was found to be a key limitation for the purpose. Water scarcity, lack of interactive governance, rights of farmers and ownership issues along with insufficient financial support to rural farmers for agroforestry were other constraining conditions that should be appropriately addressed by the regional countries to develop their preparedness for achieving national climate ambitions. Our review indicates the need to shift from planning to the implementation phase following strong examples shared from India and Nepal, including carbon neutrality scenarios, incentives and sustainable local livelihood to enhance preparedness.

Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme a large social security programme being implemented in India, with an average annual investment of US$ 7 billion. The bulk of the activities under this programme are focused on natural resources such as land, water and trees, which provide adaptation benefits. In this study an attempt is made to estimate the carbon sequestration achieved and future potential, as a co-benefit, from MGNREGS. The total mean carbon sequestered at the national level, considering the cumulative number of natural resource based activities, for the year 2017–18 was estimated to be 102 MtCO₂. The annual mean carbon sequestration is projected to increase to about 132 MtCO₂ by 2020 and 249 MtCO₂ by 2030. Drought proofing is one of the activities implemented under MGNREGS and it includes tree planting, relevant to achieving the NDC carbon sink target. The cumulative carbon sink created by drought proofing activities is projected to be 56 MtCO₂ in 2020, 281 MtCO₂ in 2025 and 561 MtCO₂ in 2030. This study demonstrates the significant carbon sink potential of MGNREGS and highlights the importance of estimation and reporting climate mitigation co-benefits of adaptation actions such as MGNREGS under the Paris Agreement.

A decade after initiating Joint Forest Management (JFM) in India, many states have conducted evaluations of the JFM program to address weaknesses, if any, during the process of implementation and to adopt strategies to implement the program effectively. The analysis indicates that evaluation was mostly donor driven and therefore only the donor concerns were highlighted in most reports. In this paper, we highlight the major issues raised by the reports reviewed. Tremendous progress has been made in terms of the number of Forest Protection Committees formed (nearly 62,900) since its inception. They cover an area of over 14 million ha. Apart from 53% open forests that can be brought under JFM, there is a lot of cultivable wasteland that could be potentially included under JFM. Though JFM has been implemented and FPC formed, their functioning is a cause for concern. Various reports indicate that the number of FPCs functioning is very low and if FPCs are to be effective, a lot of effort is needed. Lack of community participation, ineffective leadership, lack of statutory institutional support, and tenurial security are the major concerns that need to be addressed to make JFM effective. Awareness among the community about their roles and responsibilities, and capacity building is another issue that needs strengthening. A lack of proper planning, management of village resources and community involvement in the process of planning are other gaps in of the JFM program. Inadequate participation of forest dependent communities in JFM, such as landless artisans and women, is a drawback in the JFM. Adequate measures to improve their participation and the means to improve their livelihood would give them a reason to help in the cause. However, the implementation of JFM has not achieved these goals to a sufficient degree. On the other hand, the women's credit cooperatives started as a part of JFM, to emancipate women from financial constraints have succeeded, indicating that, given the right environment, JFM still could succeed. The evaluation reports have shown a huge potential for generating employment in the JFM programme, which in turn will reduce seasonal migration of landless labour. However, the income generating activity in JFM has not improved to the expected level, perhaps due to the poor links between produce availability and market channels. Ultimately, JFM has a presence in the country and has spread throughout states at least in some pockets of India. To spread the concept effectively, the Government may want to adopt a strategy that is more efficient and involves less investment, as the external support is declining. Therefore, there is a need to undertake intensive analysis involving all stakeholders, NGOs and academics to develop an implementation strategy and create a proper environment for JFM to be implemented in a meaningful manner.

With the rise in global temperatures due to climate change, heatwaves are predicted to become more frequent, prolonged, and intense. Safeguarding people's health, well-being, and quality of life from the effects of climate change and its extremes is now a priority for policymakers and international and national governments. High-risk areas, zones, districts, and communities must be recognized ahead of time to better guide planning and preparedness. This study focused on assessing the heatwave occurrence and developing a heatwave health risk index (HHRI) at the district level in Karnataka. A comprehensive framework by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on a climate change risk assessment methodology incorporating hazard, exposure, and vulnerability was employed to develop the HHRI under the current climate change scenario. Among the crucial determinants influencing the HHRI, 11 indicators were selected, encompassing heatwave occurrence, diurnal temperature ranges, population density, outdoor labor population, population commuting on foot, number of medical institutions, green cover, elderly population, people with disabilities, multidimensional poverty index, and health index. The districts with higher hazard, exposure, and vulnerability were identified and mapped along with their risk driving key factors. Among the 31 districts examined in our study, Bidar, Kalaburagi, Gadag, and Dharwad districts were classified in the very high-risk category, whereas 9 were classified in the high-risk category. The study findings on the variations in heatwave health risks among districts will enable policymakers to prioritize and execute targeted strategies to successfully reduce climate impacts.