India’s progress with regard to Targets of the Kunming Montreal Biodiversity Targets is nowhere near target as deadline approaches
By Malini Shankar,
Digital Discourse Foundation
India’s progress with regard to Targets of the Kunming
Montreal Biodiversity Targets cannot yet be said to be completed.
However India scores big in
increasing the Protected Areas Network thereby making marked progress in stymieing Biodiversity Loss. The
increase in number of tiger reserves from 28 in 2007 to 54 in 2024 marks a well-marked
stride in lending legal protection to tiger terrain where the faunal spectrum
of the Royal Bengal Tiger’s food chain and gene pool are protected. But there
is a yawning gap in making these tiger reserves inviolate of the human
footprint. Barring Bhadra Tiger Reserve in Karnataka none of the tiger reserves
have successfully relocated the forest dwellers right across the country.
Every forest dweller must be
given cash or resource compensation equivalent to Rs. 10,00,000 or 11,894.88 USD to relocate outside
the Protected Area. That not one single tiger reserve has achieved this apart
from Bhadra Tiger Reserve in 1998 tells you something about India’s bureaucracy
and the challenges in Land Use, lack of Land Use Policy.
As regards Benefit
sharing mechanisms India has legislated over a dozen pieces of legislation to
ensure decentralised, transparently governed Biodiversity registers at the
village administration level to ensure the villagers benefit from traditional
wisdom on medicinal plants. State Biodiversity Boards negotiate patent fees and
then ensure the benefits trickle down to villagers.
Tamilnadu has
witnessed two success stories in benefit sharing mechanisms. The Irulas story in Tamilnadu complements that
of Pepsico paying the Tamilnadu Biodiversity Board a patent fees of Rs 3.7
million to harvest seaweed which helped benefit local communities; and the Kanis in Kerala have benefitted atleast on
paper, but the chase for the illusory money pots isn’t complete yet almost decades later, alluding again to
the slow functioning of a behemoth bureaucracy.
As regards the Kanis’
patent fees being proposed to be utilised for their development, out of the box
solutions like a bank dedicated wholly to the tribals’ welfare is needed… like
NABARD was established wholly for agriculture and rural development. WIN-WIN partnerships
are the need of the hour.
Without holistic
development biodiversity conservation will imply only island ecosystem
conservation in a huge melting pot of lack of human development.
Given that only
three of the 23 targets have been achieved within the paradigms of
legislature in India, India is not likely to be well within the deadline of
2030.
However India has
made giant strides in installed capacity for renewables, claiming the title of
Renewables’ Super Power.
The National Biodiversity
Strategic Action Plans for India has its work cut out and time is running out.
Very nicely evaluated progress of Montreal Biodiversity achievements by India.
ReplyDeleteVery rightly said mere extension of areas under Tiger Reserves would not help in saving Biodiversity of country.These areas need to be made inviolate, hardly anything has been done to achieve this. Suitable amended provisions need to be encorporated to ensure success.
The sanctuaries and Conservation Reserves are fast loosing biodiversity due lack of protection infrastructure and ever increasing biotic pressure.The Tribal Rights Act has almost doomed conservation sanctity of these areas and something strong needs to be done otherwise these areas would turn into degraded landscapes within decade or so.
The Reserve Forests of Country which were once major reservoirs of Biodiversity are facing severe biotic pressures resulting in loss of quality cover and biodiversity.
It has become important to assess qualitative loss or gain of forest due to existing enormous biotic pressures as the forest cover increase is of species such as lantana,Prosopis juliflora which is a weed growth of no use resulting in total loss of quality cover and biodiversity. Today as per rough estimate one third of country's forest cover is infested with lantana growth decimating natural species and biodiversity. In drier areas Prosopis juliflora is doing same hevo .
The forest/Community land forest floor is now full of unpallatable grasses,herbs,shrub species due excessive grazing pressures.
And lot more issues...