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Why
Biodiversity Loss Matters I ndia occupies only 2.3% of the world’s land mass but is home to 6- 12% of the world’s
biodiversity. Many of these species are endemic to India. All this
diversity of life in India is perilously dependent on either the
monsoons or the rivers that drain down from the Himalayan glaciers.
However, both the monsoons and the Himalayan glaciers are severely
threatened by the changing climatic patterns that are causing adverse
impacts on the existing biodiversity. Apart from climatic factors, the
rate of population expansion and illegal encroachment on forest lands
contributes to the loss of over 70% of primary vegetation in India,
especially in the Western Ghats and the Eastern Himalayas. At this pace,
it will not be long before much of these regions are converted into
wastelands if the criticality of loss of biodiversity is not
communicated to all the relevant stakeholders and steps are not taken to
stop this loss.
Why Biodiversity Loss Should Worry Us? India’s biodiversity holds a very unique position in the world in many ways. It is intricately linked to all the three pillars of sustainability - social, economic and environmental. The following examples will help us understand the socio-cultural and economic practices of the land and their relation with biodiversity: • There are over 800 crop species with 320 of their wild relatives and 3000 medicinal plants in India. • According to a 2010 survey by the National Geographic, 47% of Indians consume locally grown food, as opposed to 5-6% in the developed nations. • A large percentage of the Indian population also depends on locally found flora and fauna for their economic sustenance. Thus, loss of biodiversity will not only trouble
existing natural connections but also impact the sources of livelihoods
of millions of Indians. |
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The Biological Diversity Act 2002 The Act covers conservation, use of biological resources and associated knowledge occurring in India for commercial or research purposes or for the purposes of bio-survey and bio-utilisation.
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Twelve years after introducing a Biodiversity Act, India is yet to put it to serious use and engage all the relevant stakeholders to execute it effectively. A National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) was created in 2003 with the vision of conserving and mainstreaming biodiversity of India. The Act was meant to provide for the conservation of ‘biological diversity’ in line with the primary objective of the Convention of Biodiversity (CBD) 1.The sad part is that the government is not bound by the recommendations of the Biodiversity Act. The Act only talks about ‘consultation’ with local communities which does not require decision making on local resources as prescribed by both the Act and the CBD. Also in terms of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), the Act does not take any clear position and there has been no clear instance of the NBA using its powers to oppose grant of IPR in any foreign country relating to biological resources or people’s knowledge from India. In the current scenario the way the Act is operating, it leaves a big question mark whether the Act will be able to provide our country’s biodiversity justice anytime soon? Way Forward Preparing a scientific case for action is clearly one of the biggest challenges in the battle to conserve India’s vast biodiversity. Equally important is to be able to embed this scientific evidence into viable yet sustainable development growth strategies. It is also imperative to develop a communication strategy to engage the larger public into a dialogue that helps them in relating directly to the urgency of conserving our biodiversity. Viable and effective political strategy also needs to be thought of to reverse the current trends of biodiversity loss and to create the future we want! q References:
Deepti Roy Endnotes
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