Applying the Nature Futures Framework (NFF) to navigate India's forest future

With the rising land demands for urbanization and rapid economic growth, India's forest future is marked with multiple uncertainties. The paper explores India's forest future using the IPBES’s Nature Future Framework (NFF) and highlights how pluralistic viewpoints are essential to guide decision-making related to forest sustainability. By applying the Nature Future framework, the study demonstrates how diverse value orientations can share the policy priorities for effective conservation until 2070. The paper first attempts to map the existing forest policies and programs against the three alternative value frameworks of NFF, namely, Nature for Nature, Nature for Society, and Nature for Culture. This mapping exercise helps to reveal how historical policy choices and governance structures have favored certain value systems over others. Further, to understand the various assumptions and power dynamics in the forest governance, we deployed a theory mapping approach to screen the dominant narrative of existing forest programs and policies. The main findings of this study indicate two dominant underlying narratives within the federal forest policies, i.e., ‘nature for nature’ in the pre-colonial era and ‘nature for society’ during the late 1990s, when schemes like Joint Forest Management and the Forest Rights Act dominated forest governance. These shifts reflect broader socio-political transformations in India, including democratization of resource management and growing attention to rural livelihoods. We further observed a shift in priorities in recent years that focuses on enhancing India's forest carbon stocks through afforestation and reforestation, aligning with India’s NetZero ambitions; this shift somewhat undermines participatory forest governance and traditional rights over forest resources, reflecting a realignment towards the nature-for-nature pathway. India's global climate commitments strongly influence this transition, giving priority to carbon outcomes over social and cultural considerations. In conclusion, the paper highlights significant opportunities to transform to a more inclusive forest future through the adoption of nature as a cultural pathway. Such initiatives may include the recognition and scaling of traditional agroforestry systems, conservation of sacred forests, and revival of traditional forest practices, among others. These approaches can play a critical role in balancing ecological, cultural, and developmental priorities while strengthening India’s ability to safeguard forests.