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India has sought international finance to implement its national biodiversity action plan, which will be presented in its updated form on November 31. Minister of state for environment Kirti Vardhan Singh made the request as he delivered India’s statement at the 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) in Cali’s Colombia on Tuesday (early Wednesday in India).
Governments were reviewing the state of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework’s implementation at the two-week COP16 that concludes on November 1.
Singh said it was necessary to provide means including financial resources, as laid down in target 19 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, for implementation of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan. He added a lot of ground needs to be covered in providing easily accessible means of implementation. Singh said financial resources, technology, and capacity-building were needed with the requisite speed, scope, and scale.
India has submitted its biodiversity targets aligned with global targets. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework lists 23 action-oriented global targets for urgent action until 2030. It sets out targets that parties including India need to initiate immediately and complete by 2030. The results will enable the achievement of the outcome-oriented goals for 2050.
India’s targets include conserving 30% of its area and ensuring participation, justice, and rights for Indigenous peoples and local communities, women, young persons with disabilities, and environmental defenders. It seeks to enable sustainable consumption choices and reduce food waste by half.
India aims to integrate multiple values of biodiversity into decision-making at all levels. It plans to share—fairly and equitably—benefits from genetic resources, digital sequence information, and associated traditional knowledge. India plans to reduce pollution, halving nutrient loss, and pesticide risk, and reducing rates of introduction and establishment of invasive alien species by 50%.
Singh said India has taken a significant step in global wildlife conservation by establishing the International Big Cat Alliance to protect the world’s seven major big cat species, as their presence indicates healthy ecosystems and rich biodiversity. “India’s efforts in rejuvenating sacred river Ganga through the ‘Namami Gange’ Mission was duly recognised by the United Nations as one of the top 10 World Restoration Flagships to revive the riverine ecosystem.”
He said India’s Ramsar sites, or wetlands designated as being of international importance, have risen from 26 to 85 since 2014 and this number is shortly going to reach 100. Singh said “Peace with Nature” has been part of India’s rich cultural heritage since ancient the Vedic age. The theme resonates with Lifestyle for the Environment (LiFE), an India-led global mass movement for adopting environment-friendly lifestyles.
Delegates gathered for the second and final week of COP16 on Monday and were expected to participate in the high-level segments of negotiations. They approved conference room papers (CRPs) under the Cartagena Protocol on compliance, risk assessment, risk management, and detection and identification of living modified organisms. Earth Negotiations Bulletin, which covers global environmental and sustainable development negotiations, said deliberations proved more difficult. “Despite best efforts by Working Group II Chair Hesiquio Benítez (Mexico), disagreements persisted in discussions of CRPs on invasive alien species, biodiversity and health, and biodiversity mainstreaming. Unresolved matters included references to the Global Invasive Species Database, actions to ensure biodiversity and health co-benefits regarding Target 13 (benefit-sharing), and future work on mainstreaming, respectively,” it said.
Working Group II addressed CRPs on items under the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety as text-based negotiations continued. Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, the UK, and Quebec (Canada) pledged an additional $163 million to the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund.