Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon ( Environment)–October 17th,2020

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is an independent, public interest organization (not-for-profit), which uses knowledge for activism.
•The Centre was started in 1980, by India’s top environmentalist, Anil Agarwal and continues to work to push, prod and argue for environmental management in the country. It believes it can and must make a difference.
•The India Environment Portal is initiated and managed by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) promoted by the National Knowledge Commission (NKC), Government of India.
Source: CSE

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has formed a Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC) as per the Bio Diversity Act of 2002, which mandates the establishment of BMCs at the local body level across the country.
•The committee will work towards conservation and promotion of biological diversity.
•The primary responsibility of the committee includes documentation of biological diversity, preservation of natural habitats, conservation of landrace, local and regional breeds of animals and plants.
•One of the important functions of the committee would be to prepare or help prepare People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR), which will contain comprehensive information on local flora and fauna, traditional and scientific knowledge, and information associated with species.
Source: The Hindu

Government of India in collaboration with the Norwegian Government has established a “Centre for Biodiversity Policy and Law (CEBPOL)” in the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), Chennai, to develop professional expertise in biodiversity policies and laws and develop capacity building.
•The Centre for Biodiversity Policy and Law (CEBPOL), a policy advocacy unit of the National Biodiversity Authority, came out with recommendations to increase India’s agro-biodiversity in 2019.
•These include a comprehensive policy on ‘ecological agriculture’ to enhance native pest and pollinator population providing ecosystem services for the agricultural landscape.
•It suggested promotion of the bio-village concept of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) for ecologically sensitive farming;
•conserving crop wild relatives of cereals, millets, oilseeds, fibres, forages, fruits and nuts, vegetables, spices etc. for crop genetic diversity healthier food;
•Providing incentives for farmers cultivating native landrace varieties and those conserving indigenous breeds of livestock and poultry varieties.
Source: National Biodiversity Authority

The Global Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) was started by Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) for the purpose of creating public awareness and safeguarding the World agricultural heritage sites. There are three regions of India, which has been recognised as the Global Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) cities in India: Koraput, Odisha State; Kashmir Valley, Pampore region; and Kuttanad.
Source: UPSC Previous year papers

In the wake of 16-year-old Greta Thunberg’s call for standing up for climate action, students all over the world are heeding her clarion call.
•On Children’s Day, students in Bengaluru and Karnataka are doing their bit for the environment by planting trees.
•Prerana MyTree, an eco-initiative by students from 48,000 government schools across Karnataka will plant about 2.5 lakh trees across the state.
•Prerana MyTree is supported by the state government, the NGO Sikshana Foundation, Dell and Bengaluru-based startup, Eyeris Media.
Source: The Hindu

The CCPI (released by Germanwatch) is an independent monitoring tool of countries’ climate protection performance.
•It aims to enhance transparency in international climate politics and enables the comparability of climate protection efforts and progress made by individual countries.
•The ranking results are defined by a country’s aggregated performance in 14 indicators within the four categories “GHG Emissions”, “Renewable Energy” and “Energy Use”, as well as on “Climate Policy”, in a globally unique policy section of the index.
Source: The Hindu

Explanation: ‘Drought-forecasting toolbox’ was unveiled at UNCCD COP14 event. The 14th Conference of Parties (COP14) of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was held in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
•It aims to track, assess and deliver relevant information concerning climatic, hydrologic and water supply trends.
•It is developed through the close partnership among, UNCCD, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and global bodies.
Source: Indian Express

The international initiative “4 per 1000”, launched by France on 1 December 2015 at the COP 21, consists of federating all voluntary stakeholders of the public and private sectors (national governments, local and regional governments, companies, trade organizations, NGOs, research facilities, etc.) under the framework of the Lima-Paris Action Plan (LPAP).
•The aim of the initiative is to demonstrate that agriculture, and in particular agricultural soils can play a crucial role where food security and climate change are concerned.
•An annual growth rate of 0.4% in the soil carbon stocks, or 4‰ per year, in the first 30-40 cm of soil, would significantly reduce the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere related to human activities.
•This growth rate is not a normative target for each country, but is intended to show that even a small increase in the soil carbon stock (agricultural soils, notably grasslands and pastures, and forest soils) is crucial to improve soil fertility and agricultural production and to contribute to achieving the long-term objective of limiting the temperature increase to the +2°C threshold, beyond which the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) indicates that the effects of climate change are significant.
•The “4 per 1000” initiative is intended to complement those necessary efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, globally and generally in the economy as a whole. It is voluntary; it is up to each member to define how they want to contribute to the goals.
Source: The Hindu

The 1995 Basel Ban Amendment, a global waste dumping prohibition, has become an international law after Croatia ratified it on September 6, 2019.
•Croatia became the 97th country to ratify the ban, which was adopted by the parties to the Basel Convention in 1995, to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects of hazardous wastes, according to Basel Action Network (BAN).
•The Ban Amendment prohibits all export of hazardous wastes, including electronic wastes and obsolete ships from 29 wealthiest countries of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to non-OECD countries.
•However, countries like the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia, India, Brazil, and Mexico are yet to ratify the ban.
Source: The Hindu

The Nilgiri langur, also known as the hooded leaf monkey, black leaf monkey, Indian hooded leaf monkey, John’s langur, Nilgiri black langur, and the Nilgiri leaf monkey, is a species of Old World monkey endemic to South India.
•It is found in the Western Ghats, particularly in the Nilgiri Hills from which it derives its name, but also in other hilly areas in that region.
•They prefer to live between 980 and 6,500 ft (300–2,000 m) above sea level, and typically settle in at around 4,600 ft (1,400 m).
•Since they are an arboreal species, they seek out habitat with trees, and are known to inhabit secondary moist deciduous forests and evergreen forests. Other considerations include proximity to water and distance from humans.
•This is a diurnal species, meaning they are active during the day. While active, they spend approximately half of their time eating and the other half resting.
Source: Envis