UNCCD COP17 highlighted the global land restoration funding crisis, while India faces growing questions over carbon markets, grassland conservation and ecological risks.

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• UNCCD COP17 concluded in Ulaanbaatar during the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists, with land restoration finance dominating discussions.
• Global land restoration requires nearly $355 billion annually through 2030, compared with approximately $77 billion currently reaching restoration initiatives.
• The summit promoted nature and biodiversity credits and launched a $1.2 billion rangelands finance initiative supporting pastoral communities and ecosystems.
• India is increasingly recognising grasslands, savannas and scrublands as functioning ecosystems rather than categorising them broadly as wastelands.
• India’s Green Credit Programme allows plantations on degraded land, raising concerns that broad definitions could encourage trees being planted on natural grasslands.
• TERI’s June 2026 analysis described Indian grasslands as an important carbon resource and highlighted restoration as a potential carbon-finance opportunity.
• India’s formal carbon market has not yet approved a methodology for grassland or rangeland soil carbon, making policy design especially important.
• Soil carbon remains difficult to measure and verify, creating challenges around pricing, permanence, additionality and reliable carbon-credit generation.
• Evidence from Australia has raised concerns about soil-carbon credits where reported sequestration exceeded scientific estimates and rainfall influenced measured gains.
• Carbon-focused interventions could encourage soil disturbance or tree planting, potentially damaging native grass ecosystems and their naturally adapted underground regenerative structures.
• India’s emerging carbon-finance framework therefore needs safeguards ensuring grassland restoration protects biodiversity rather than replacing natural ecosystems with plantations.
• The debate highlights a crucial policy challenge: recognising grasslands as valuable ecosystems while preventing market mechanisms from repeating plantation-driven conservation approaches.