HPFD was established by the State Government, with the vision & mission for the development, conservation, and management of Forest, Tree growth, wildlife habitat etc. on sustainable basis for present and future generation, by planning, executing, coordinating and monitoring the implementation of Forestry and Wildlife programmes. The Project will be implemented through the PMU to be established as an autonomous society within HPFD as per the provisions in the Himachal Pradesh Society Registration Act, 2006.

The High Power Committee (HPC) created for the Project will act as highest decision-making body for the Project at state government level, and will not form part of the autonomous society to be created for project implementation. However, the main responsibility for project implementation shall be taken by HPFD. The existing Divisional and Range offices will operate within their respective jurisdictions for the project implementation.

The recorded forest area that are legally classified are spread over an area of 37948 sq.km accounting for 68.16 per cent of the geographic area of the State. Diversity of forest ecosystem is exemplified by the presence of 8 forest types and 37 forest sub-types as per classification of forest by Champion and Seth (1968). Himalayan Moist Temperate forest (Group 12) occupies the largest area among all the forest types.

In Himachal, majority of population lives in villages and still depends on forests for most of their daily needs. According to the study conducted by Dr. Madhu Verma , the direct consumptive benefits accrued from the forests of HP in the shape of Salvage, TD, Fuels, fodder, minor forest produce etc. worth about Rs. 1083 cores per annum.