Environment Quiz: Biodiversity & Conservation |16 Apr, 2021

The path breaking Biological Diversity Act, 2002 not only supports the conservation and the sustainable use of biological resources, it also promotes an equitable sharing of benefits that come from their use.

· This one law has the potential to revolutionalise the rights of communities over the natural resources they live with.

· The BDA has made it mandatory for every local self-governing institution in rural and urban areas to constitute a Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC) within their area of jurisdiction.

· Once constituted, the BMC must prepare a Peoples’ Biodiversity Register (PBR) in consultation with local people.

· A PBR comprehensively documents traditional knowledge of local biological resources.

· The BMC is the custodian of these resources, and any industry that extracts biological resources from these areas has to share part of its revenue with the local community.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/the-peoples-biodiversity-register-meant-to-empower-local-communities-is-leaving-them-out/article32869691.

The Raika tribes are a nomadic people, occupying the western districts of Rajasthan and Gujurat, including the Thar Desert.

· One estimate put their number at about 500,000, though Raikas many are abandoning the pastoralist way of life in the face of social, economic and legal pressures.

· They are known for their Arabian camels, or dromedaries, but many Raika families raise sheep and goats.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/the-peoples-biodiversity-register-meant-to-empower-local-communities-is-leaving-them-out/article32869691

The second meeting of the Conference of the Parties called for the preparation of a periodic report on biological diversity: the Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO).

· It suggested that the GBO should provide a summary of the status of biological diversity and an analysis of the steps being taken by the global community to ensure that biodiversity is conserved and used sustainably, and that benefits arising from the use of genetic resources are shared equitably. Five editions of the report have been prepared.

· The Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 (GBO-5), published by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), offers an authoritative overview of the state of nature.

· It is a final report card on progress against the 20 global biodiversity targets agreed in 2010 with a 2020 deadline, and offers lessons learned and best practices for getting on track.

Source: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/pathways-to-diversity-the-hindu-editorial-on-un-biodiversity-summit/article32754839.ece & https://www.cbd.int/gbo/

Sundaland covers a small portion of southern Thailand (provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat); nearly all of Malaysia (nearly all of Peninsular Malaysia and the East Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah in northern Borneo); Singapore at the tip of the Malay Peninsula; all of Brunei Darussalam; and all of the western half of the megadiversity country of Indonesia, including Kalimantan (the Indonesian portion of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Bali).

· The Nicobar Islands, which are under Indian jurisdiction, are also included. Sundaland is bordered by three hotspots.

· The boundary between the Sundaland Hotspot and the Indo-Burma Hotspot to the northwest is here taken as the Kangar-Pattani Line, which crosses the Thailand-Malaysia border.

· Wallacea lies immediately to the east of the Sundaland Hotspot, separated by the famous Wallace’s Line, while the 7,100 islands of the Philippines Hotspot lie immediately to the northeast.

Source: http://bsienvis.nic.in/files/Biodiversity%20Hotspots%20in%20India.pdf

Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) is an umbrella term commonly used to include areas that contribute to the global persistence of biodiversity, including vital habitat for threatened plant and animal species in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems.

· Globally KBAs are designated based on 11 criteria defined under five broad categories of threatened biodiversity; geographically restricted biodiversity; ecological integrity; biological processes; and, irreplaceability.

· The criteria for designating a site as KBA have been described in the document “The Global Standard for the Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas (2016)” by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Source: http://www.wiienvis.nic.in/Database/Key_Biodiversity_Areas_8647.aspx

The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural, scientific, and recreational value.

Source: http://www.wiienvis.nic.in/Database/ramsar_wetland_sites_8224.aspx

The IUCN is the world’s oldest global environmental organization (both government and civil society organizations) to promote nature conservation and the ecologically sustainable use of natural resources.

· Every four years, IUCN convenes the IUCN World Conservation Congress to set the global conservation agenda.

· The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, founded in 1964, is the world’s most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species.

Source: The Hindu

The Wild Life (Protection) Act of 1972 provided for the declaration of certain areas by the State Government as wildlife sanctuaries if the area was thought to be of adequate ecological, geo-morphological and natural significance.

The Wild Life (Protection) Act (WPA) of 1972 provided for the declaration of National Parks by the State Government in addition to the declaration of wildlife sanctuaries.

Source: Wildlife Protection Act, 1972

Conservation Reserve and Community Reserves are the outcome of Amendments to the Wild life protection act in 2003.

· The Amendment Act of 2003 provided for the creation of a new type of protected area called a Conservation Reserve.

· It is an area owned by the State Government adjacent to National Parks and sanctuaries for protecting the landscape, seascape and habitat of fauna and flora.

· It is managed through a Conservation Reserve Management Committee.

Source: Shankar

The famous Chipko Andolan (Hug the Trees Movement) of Uttarakhand in the Himalayas inspired the villagers of the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka Province in southern India to launch a similar movement to save their forests.

· In September 1983, men, women and children of Salkani “hugged the trees” in Kalase forest. (The local term for “hugging” in Kannada is appiko.)

· Appiko Andolan gave birth to a new awareness all over southern India.

Source: NCERT