India can become a biodiversity champion

India can become a biodiversity champion

The sum and variation of our biological wealth, known as bio-diversity

 1 is essential to the future of this planet. 

2 The importance of our planet’s biodiversity was strongly articulated स्पष्ट रूप से कहना at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Montreal, Canada. 

3 On December 19, 2022

188 country representatives adopted an agreement to “halt and reverse” biodiversity loss

🌺by conserving 30% of the world’s land 

🌺and 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, known as the 30×30 pledge. 

4 India currently hosts 17% of the planet’s human population 

and 17% of the global area in biodiversity hotspots, 

placing it at the helm to guide the planet in becoming biodiversity champions.

Programmes with potential

1 In response to this call, the Union Budget 2023 

mentioned “Green Growth” as one of the seven priorities or Saptarishis. 

The emphasis on green growth is welcome news for India’s biological wealth as the country is facing serious losses of natural assets such as soils, land, water, and biodiversity.

2 The National Mission for a Green India 

aims to increase forest cover on degraded lands and protect existing forested lands.

3 The Green Credit Programme

has the objective to “incentivize environmentally sustainable and responsive actions by companies, individuals and local bodies”.

4 The Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes (MISHTI)

is particularly significant because of the extraordinary importance of mangroves and coastal ecosystems in mitigating climate change. 

5 The Prime Minister Programme for Restoration, Awareness, Nourishment, and Amelioration of Mother Earth (PM-PRANAM) 

for reducing inputs of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides is critical for sustaining our agriculture.

6 Finally, the Amrit Dharohar scheme directly mentions our biological wealth and

🌺is expected to “encourage optimal use of wetlands, 

🌺and enhance biodiversity, 

🌺carbon stock, 

🌺eco-tourism opportunities 

🌺and income generation for local communities”. 

If implemented in letter and spirit, Amrit Dharohar, with its emphasis on sustainability by balancing competing demands, will benefit aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem services.

7 to stop the draining of Haiderpur

The recent intervention by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to stop the draining of Haiderpur, a Ramsar wetland in Uttar Pradesh, to safeguard migratory waterfowl is encouraging.

Must be science-based

1 A science-based and inclusive monitoring programme 

🌺is critical not only for the success of these efforts

🌺 but also for documentation

🌺and distillation of lessons learnt for replication, nationally as well as globally.

2 New missions and programmes should effectively use modern concepts 

of sustainability and valuation of ecosystems that consider ecological, cultural, and sociological aspects of our biological wealth. 

With clear system boundaries, prioritisation of the benefits to ‘resource people’, and fund-services (rather than stock-flows) as the economic foundation for generating value has enormous potential for multiple sustainable bio-economies.

The future of our wetland ecosystems 

will depend on how we are able to sustain ecological flows through reduction in water use in key sectors

 such as agriculture by encouraging changes to less-water intensive crops such as millets 

as well as investments in water recycling in urban areas using a combination of grey and blue-green infrastructure.

As far as the Green India Mission

is concerned, implementation should focus on ecological restoration 

rather than tree plantation

 and choose sites where it can contribute to ecological connectivity in landscapes fragmented by linear infrastructure.

 Furthermore, choice of species and density

should be informed by available knowledge and evidence on resilience under emerging climate change and synergies and trade-offs with respect to hydrologic services.

Site selection

should also be carefully considered for the mangrove initiative with a greater emphasis on diversity of mangrove species with retention of the integrity of coastal mud-flats and salt pans themselves, as they too are important for biodiversity.

Local community involvement

Finally, each of these efforts must be inclusive of local and nomadic ख़ानाबदोश communities where these initiatives will be implemented.

 Traditional knowledge and practices of these communities should be integrated into the implementation plans.

 Each of these programmes has the potential 

to greatly improve the state of our nation’s biodiversity if their implementation is based on the latest scientific and ecological knowledge.

 As a consequence, each programme should include significant educational and research funding to critically appraise मूल्‍यांकन करना and bring awareness to India’s biological wealth.

(PM-STIAC)

 In response to this need, we hope that the National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Wellbeing, 

already approved by the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC), will be immediately launched by the government. 

This mission seeks to harness the power of interdisciplinary knowledge — for greening India and its economy, to restore and enrich our natural capital for the well-being of our people, and to position India as a global leader in applied biodiversity science.

Source the Hindu