Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have introduced an innovative program that is designed to transform forest conservation and climate governance in India. The two organizations introduced the first-ever Forest Stack Blueprint in India, using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) to increase forest conservation activities. This program aims to ensure that forest management becomes much more quantifiable, explicit, and scalable, and has the potential to unlock massive economic and social value by enhancing forest health, governance, and livelihoods with innovative AI-enabled solutions. 

Vision and potential of the Forest Stack

The previous achievement of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in India has particularly revolutionized governance and inclusion in some of the fundamental sectors of the economy, like finance and healthcare. JICA and BCG are now extending the same foundational principles, spanning openness, interoperability, and sharing of common digital assets, to natural resource management. The Forest Stack is designed as the first DPI in the forestry of the country and developed based on all of these principles to help create efficiency and transparency.

Blueprint of the Forest Stack was introduced during the National Partnership Forum on the topic of Scaling Forest Conservation with AI and Digital Public Infrastructure. The workshop was organized with the help of JICA DX Lab and JICA India Office, and in collaboration with BCG.

The forum effectively invited senior leaders in diverse fields that are important to forest management, including policy making, funding, such as the National CAMPA CEO, senior Forest Officers of the state of Rajasthan, the Head of the JICA DX Lab, and a collaborative approach to this digital transformation.

The Forest Stack potential has already been implemented on a large scale in the state of Rajasthan, which is the first state in India to implement the model on a full scale. This innovative application demonstrates the transformational potential of a common digital backbone of forestry.

The major part of this state-level implementation is the DigiVan, which was introduced by the Honourable Chief Minister of Rajasthan in March 2025. The system allows the online tracking of hectares of forest cover of 3.3 million (Mn Ha) of land, which comprises over 2,000 plantation sites per year. With the implementation of digital workflows, the budgets are being handled more transparently, and about ₹650 crores of the budgets are being handled in plantations. Field officers have adopted it in large numbers, with more than 75% of them having been trained on the platform.

Essential learnings and core architecture

The Forest Data Exchange is the basic component of the Forest Stack and an interoperable standards-based framework that is intended to facilitate the data exchange. With over 50 datasets on forestry and wildlife that will be accessible, the Exchange will have the capability to drive many varied applications, especially those supported by AI-enabled applications.

Forest Data Exchange is also projected to be a driver of innovation throughout the ecosystem. In order to demonstrate this idea, the Forest Stack Open Innovation Challenge was concluded in Rajasthan in July 2025. This prompted researchers, startups, and institutions of higher learning to come up with creative solutions over the Stack.

It was offered over 185 proposals, including AI-based fire-risk predictors and the most sophisticated biodiversity monitoring tools. The involvement and excellence of propositions were high, which underscored the speed at which open data and collaborative innovation can accelerate the development. Another evidence of this sense of collaboration is the participation of cross-industry members, such as PowerGrid, DCM Sriram, and AWS.

The key insights and effective habits that were acquired during the implementation in Rajasthan have been carefully summarized into The Forest Stack Blueprint. This is a complete guide that should help other states in India to design and scale similar forestry applications easily. The report offers a comprehensive end-to-end strategy, such as data preparation and functional architecture, for the required governance framework.

To further accelerate adoption, a supporting open-source GitHub repository contains validated analytical models. These resources have preconstructed analytical models that can save up to 50% of implementation time, which therefore shortens rollout schedules and decreases implementation costs to other states.

Conclusion

The introduction of the Forest Stack Blueprint by JICA and BCG is a milestone in India’s dedication to sustainable climate management and natural resources management. The initiative offers a scalable and transparent example of conservation with the introduction of the first DPI in the country to operate in the forestry sector, which is based on AI and has been successfully tested on a large scale in Rajasthan. The entire Blueprint, along with its open-source repository, is a framework and a common call to action, a statement of the shared belief that data, collaboration, and technology are the keys to ensuring the well-being of the forests in India and becoming climate-ready in governance.