Sunday, 13 March 2016

India and Biodiversity


India is among the top 12 mega centers of the world in terms of its bio-diversity. It has a wide range of geo-climatic conditions and a rich and varied flora and fauna, as well as a long standing tradition of environmental sensibility and concern that goes to the very roots of its millennia-old culture. Harmony with nature has been an integral part of the ethos of Indian society.
India hosted the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) from 8-19 October 2012, in Hyderabad, India, following the sixth Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP/MOP 6).
India’s hosting of these important conferences was symbolic of the importance it attaches to the preservation and protection of the planet’s biodiversity and it leadership on these issues at the multilateral fora.
The meetings were presided over by Ms. Jayanthi Natarajan, Minister for Environment and Forests, India as the President of CoP-11. The High Level Segment was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of who in his speech launched the ‘Hyderabad Pledge’, wherein he announced that the Government of India has decided to earmark a sum of US $ 50 million during India’s Presidency of CoP to strengthen institutional mechanism, enhance the technical and human capabilities biodiversity conservation in India, and to promote similar capacity building in other developing countries. COP-11 to the CBD was notable for the agreement on an interim target of doubling biodiversity-related international financial resource flows to developing countries by 2015, and at least maintaining this level until 2020. This is coupled with targets aiming to improve the robustness of baseline information as well as a preliminary reporting framework for monitoring resource mobilization.

No comments:

Post a Comment