Capturing currents

  By Malini Shankar Digital Discourse Foundation Rome 28.02.2025 COP 16 President  Susana Muhamad , Colombia “The Global Environment Facility serves to meet the needs of Parties, as they strive for global environmental commitments, including the 2030 biodiversity targets. We welcome the decision reached in Rome and look forward to continuing to support effective and innovative solutions to the biodiversity crisis through the GEF Trust Fund and the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF), which together have allocated resources to more than 140 countries since COP15.” “The GEF has gone through a series of reforms in the Secretariat, and in its policies and processes, to better support countries’ capacities. The GEF has been listening carefully to CBD Parties and is committed to continued improvements in order to respond to their expectations and capacities needs. The establishment of the GBFF is a demonstration of GEF’s timely and efficient responsiveness to the C...

  By Malini Shankar Digital Discourse Foundation Rome 28.02.2025 Governments agree on the way forward to mobilise the resources needed to protect biodiversity for people and planet.   Governments agreed on a resource mobilization strategy that will establish the permanent arrangements for the financial mechanism of the Convention on Biological Diversity and mobilise the mixture of financial instruments needed to close the biodiversity finance gap. Parties enhanced the planning, monitoring, reporting and review mechanisms required to measure implementation of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). The Cali Fund on the sharing of benefits from digital sequence information on genetic resources, was launched, opening a new chapter in mobilising private finance for biodiversity.   Rome 28 February 2025. Governments agreed early today in Rome on the strategy to raise the funds needed to prot...

  By Malini Shankar Digital Discourse Foundation Rome 28.02.2025 The resumed session of the 16 th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity has drawn to a close somewhat inconclusively in Rome. Herculean efforts were made in Rome to launch the Cali Fund to fund DSI or Digital Sequencing Information. Signatory Nations or Parties are hesitant to deposit the funding in the Global Environment Facility bowing to apprehensions that developed countries will bully emerging economies where the funding is critically required to stymie Biodiversity Loss. DSI fund makes a start towards equity in Biodiversity Management through the Cali Fund for instance. DSI is a biodiversity funding mechanism to get private sector entities that use Data from genetic resources and natural resources for manufacturing – to share a slice of their profits by making contributions to the Cali Fund which will help Biodiversity rich nations to prevent and reverse Biodi...

  By Malini Shankar Digital Discourse Foundation The agriculture sector is the largest source of livelihood in India. The country is one of the largest producers of agriculture and food products in the world. In 2022-23, India’s agriculture sector growth rate was estimated to be at 3.5% of India’s GDP. Horticultural produce quantifies to 33% of gross value added Agriculture. In 2023-24, horticulture production was estimated at 355 million tonnes,   surpassing food grain production. India is one of the largest agricultural product exporters in the world. In April-July 2024, the overall value of export of agricultural products stood at US$ 15.76 billion. In 2023-24 the agricultural exports from India stood at US$ 48.15 billion. In 2022-23, the agricultural exports from India stood at US$ 52.50 billion. During 2021-22, the country recorded US$ 50.2 billion in total agriculture exports with a 20% increase from US$ 41.3 billion in 2020-21. India’s agriculture sector primarily ...

  By Malini Shankar Digital Discourse Foundation Rome 25.02.2025 Tree planting has almost become fashionable these days with corporate funding lending glamour and purpose to socialites and busybodies searching for a meaningful purpose. But there is so much more ecological significance to green activism. Let us examine the critical significance of agroforestry in this series of articles. But Agroforestry offers a win-win solution for stake holders and the environment.  First of all Green cover. A full grown fruiting tree will have a root system that expands atleast quarter acre. The tree canopy spreads over anything between 1/10 th of an acre to 1 full acre depending on the family the tree belongs to. Thus the ambient temperature between tree shade and outside tree shade can almost be 1 degree Centigrade in the Tropics. This directly contributes to Climate Change Mitigation. The tree cover retains moisture contributing to moisture retention in the micro terrain / ...