Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (Environment) – July 18, 2020

The Central Government provides financial support to the States for supporting conservation of wildlife and biodiversity, through the following umbrella schemes:

1. Development of National Parks and Sanctuaries (DNPS);
2. Project Tiger (PT)
3. Project Elephant (PE)
4. Protection of Wildlife Outside Protected Areas (PWOPA).

The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) was created in February, 1992 under an Act of Parliament (Section 38A of Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 as amended in 1991) to control mushrooming of ill-conceived/ ill planned zoos.

• And to monitor and evaluate the existing zoos and to suggest ways and means for the improvement of zoos in the country.
• So that they can be transformed into potent centres for the ex-situ conservation of endangered wild fauna.
• The Central Zoo Authority regulates the exchange of animals of endangered category listed under Schedule I and II of Wildlife protection act, 1972.

Available evidence and the decisions adopted by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) indicate that a significant gap remains in finance for biodiversity management, for countries to drastically scale up their efforts and achieve the 20 Aichi Targets defined in the CBD’s Strategic Plan for 2011-2020.

• A preliminary assessment conducted under the auspices of the High Level Panel on Global Assessment of Resources for Implementing the CBD Strategic Plan for 2011-2020, estimated that the global investment required amounts to between 130 and 440 billion US$ annually.
• In this context, UNDP in October 2012 launched the Biodiversity Finance Initiative – BIOFIN, as a new global partnership seeking to address the biodiversity finance challenge in a comprehensive manner – building a sound business case for increased investment in the management of ecosystems and biodiversity, with a particular focus on the needs and transformational opportunities at the national level.
• BIOFIN aims to develop a methodology for quantifying the biodiversity finance gap at national level, for improving cost-effectiveness through mainstreaming of biodiversity into national development and sectoral planning, and for developing comprehensive national resource mobilizing strategies.

India’s Vice President Shri Venkaiah Naidu launched India’s Biodiversity Finance Plan on 24th May 2019, during celebrations in Chennai for International Day of Biological Diversity.

As per the Biological Diversity Act 2002 and Rules 2004, it is necessary to constitute State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) and Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) and make them functional for documentation, conservation and sustainable utilization of Biodiversity.

Preparation of People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBRs) involving locals and BMCs and with guidance from SBBs and NBA is also stipulated in the Act and Rules.

The People’s Biodiversity Registers are the one way of documenting traditional knowledge and provide:

• information on availability of traditional knowledge of people relating to biological resources
• details of the access to biological resources and traditional knowledge granted,
• details of collection fee imposed and benefits derived, and
• Mode of sharing the benefits.

E-waste (Management) Rules, 2016, enacted since October 1, 2017, had further strengthened the existing rules.

• Over 21 products (Schedule-I) were included under the purview of the rule. The rule also extended its purview to components or consumables or parts or spares of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE), along with their products.
• The present rule has strengthened the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which is the global best practice to ensure the take-back of the end-of-life products.
• A new arrangement entitled, ‘Producer Responsibility Organisation’ (PRO) has been introduced to strengthen EPR further.
• PRO, a professional organisation, would be authorised or financed collectively or individually by producers, to share the responsibility for collection and channelisation of e-waste generated from the ‘end-of-life’ products to ensure environmentally sound management of such e-waste.

Fly ash, the end product of combustion during the process of power generation in the coal based thermal power plants.

• It is a proven resource material for many applications of construction industriesand currently is being utilized in manufacturing of Portland Cement, bricks/blocks/tiles manufacturing, road embankment construction and low-lying area development, etc.
• Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad have developed a cheap waterproofing material by coating fly ash, a waste by-product from coal-based thermal power plants, with stearic acid, which is a surfactant.
• While fly ash is extremely water-loving (hydrophilic), it turns into a highly water-repelling surface once coated with stearic acid.
• Fly ash varies in size from 100 nanometres to a few microns and can thus provide surfaces with different roughness based on the size of the particles chosen.

In an attempt to protect the coral reefs that divers so admire they have dubbed them the underwater Serengeti.

• The Pacific nation of Palau will soon ban many types of sunscreen.
• President Tommy Remengesau Jr. last week signed legislation that bans “reef-toxic” sunscreen from 2020.
• Banned sunscreens will be confiscated from tourists who carry them into the country, and merchants selling the banned products will be fined up to $1,000.

Mission 175 is a global platform to explore strategies for development and deployment of renewables.

• It is hosted by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), the event showcases India‘s renewable energy potential and the Government‘s efforts to scale up capacity to meet the national energy requirement in a socially, economically and ecologically sustainable manner.
• In the year 2015, the Government of India announced a target for 175 GW cumulative renewable power installed capacity by the year 2022.

Protecting forests is critical to averting the most dangerous climate change and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement.

• Avoiding further deforestation could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by three to four billion metric tons per year – the equivalent of taking half the world’s cars off the road.
• Natural climate solutions represent more than 30% of cost effective emissions reductions.
• The Tropical Forest Alliance is a global public-private partnership dedicated to collaborative action to realize sustainable rural development and better growth opportunities based on reduced deforestation and sustainable land use management in tropical forest countries.
• The Alliance includes more than 150 partners representing the private sector, governments, civil society organizations, indigenous peoples groups and multilateral organizations who are committed to reducing tropical deforestation associated with the production of palm oil, soy, beef and pulp and paper.
• TFA is funded by the governments of Norway, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, Germany, and the Gordon and Betty more Foundation and hosted at the World Economic Forum.

The Ramsar Convention signed on February 2, 1971, is one of the oldest inter-governmental accord signed by members countries to preserve the ecological character of their wetlands of international importance.

The aim of the Ramsar list is to develop and maintain an international network of wetlands, which are important for the conservation of global biological diversity and for sustaining human life through the maintenance of their ecosystem components, processes and benefits.

The Ramsar Convention has adopted a Ramsar Classification of Wetland Type which includes 42 types, grouped into three categories:

1. Marine and Coastal Wetlands,
2. Inland Wetlands,
3. Human-made Wetlands.

Except Goa and Karnataka all coastal states have Ramsar sites.