Biodiversity Plan

IIPM’s 36th Glorious Year of Academic Excellence

Is India missing the woods for the trees by ignoring its vast & varied natural inheritance? Do we need a more viable & robust plan to take care of our biodiversity?

Years ago, when it was not so politically correct to talk about climate change, Mahatma Gandhi had the vision to say, “The Earth has enough to satisfy everybody’s need but not anyone’s greed.” When man’s endeavour to survive & fulfil its need took the giant leap to go for a no-holds-barred drive of greed, it set on a fast-track move towards devouring the golden goose (read: nature) that laid the egg for him. So much so, that human activity has increased the extinction rate (of life) by at least 100 times compared to the natural rate. Harvard Biologist E. O. Wilson estimated that Earth is currently losing about 30,000 species per year. It’s estimated that nature gives to humanity $16-54 trillion worth of ‘services’ to humans per year. Scientists estimate that between US$20-25 billion needs to be spent every year to achieve effective conservation of life forms on Earth. At the 1992 Earth Summit – in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity was signed. It is the single most important global agreement designed to protect & develop our planet’s biodiversity. India, one of the signatories to the convention is required to come out with National Biodiversity Strategy & Action Plan (NBSAP).

The NBSAP, which is likely to come up for Cabinet approval shortly, observes that main harm to biodiversity in India is from destruction of habitat. It states that nearly 50% of the aquatic plants of the world are recorded from Indian subcontinent, but only few have been studied in detail. Moreover, about 150 crops feed most of the human population at present, but just 12 of them provide 80% of food energy. Landraces, grown traditionally by farming communities through generations, locally adapted obsolete cultivars and their wild relatives comprise crop genetic resources. Alarm bells are ringing as narrow genetic base means more vulnerability to epidemics. A large number of over 300,000 samples of these cultivars, kept under long term storage in the National Gene Bank, have gone out of cultivation. About 30 mammalian and bird species are used extensively, but just 15 of them cause over 90% of global livestock production and of the many well known, about 140 native breeds of farm livestock and poultry, are facing threat to survival.

Even though forestry is the second largest land use in India after agriculture, covering approximately 23.57% (recorded forest area) of the total geographical area, the contribution to the Gross Domestic Product from forestry & logging was 1.1% in 2001. An estimated 41% of the country’s forest cover has been degraded. As much as 78% of forest area is subject to heavy grazing. NTFPs (non-timber forest products) contribute to over 75% of total forest export revenue, and add income of about 30% ruralites. But, getting maximum utilisation from our forests is hampered by lack of inventory data or value addition, weak forestry information system and inadequate space for private participation. Of India’s over 6,500 medicinal plants species, nearly 90% of those in trade are harvested from the wild.

In India, conservation biological studies are scant mainly because of the lack of expertise on specific groups, lack of funding to work on groups having only scientific importance and lack of coordination in exchanging data. Not to be missed out is India’s strong base of indigenous knowledge on various aspects of biodiversity. The document states that documentation of traditional knowledge available in our ancient texts is being undertaken by NISCAIR, in the form of a computerised database, Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL). The document calls for factoring in natural resource accounting (NRA) in the national economic planning processes. The Act provides for establishment of a National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) and Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) at local levels. The Act also stipulates preparation of People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBRs) by the BMCs.

However, Ashish Kothari of Kalpavriksh (Kalpavriksh was asked by the government to provide technical support for preparing the action plan) told B&E, “Our main problem with this action plan is that it more or less ignores the final draft plan that we had given in late 2003, to Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). Thereafter, MoEF with some modifications (mostly minor), gave it to the UNDP, in 2004. Additionally, the strategies given in this current document are about 50% the same as given in a 1999, MoEF document called the Macro-Strategy on Biodiversity.” Also Dr. Suman Sahai of Gene Campaign, echoed Kothari’s, view, and told B&E,“Loopholes have been put up in the plan document to cater to commercial interests.” On the issue of private participation, T. Manoharan of World Wide Fund for Nature- India, told B&E, “Though the plan invites private participation in biodiversity. The extent of their being permitted in biological resources is sensitive. The plan doesn’t specify the areas and levels of their involvement in country’s biodiversity. Moreover, the plan calls for giving economic valuation to biological resources. But, who will value it?” Noted environmentalist Vandana Shiva further added, “Agriculture as been kept out of biological intellectual property rights in the document.” Commenting on biological intellectual property being left open for corporates, Chairman, National Biodiversity Authority, S. Kannaiyan, told B&E, “The corporates will have to observe international agreement of beneficiary & would have to return part benefits to local communities, from whom they extract nature’s information.”

The plan has been successful in giving a formal and national level starting point for endeavours towards appreciation of the unity in diversity of life in India. But, our understanding of causes of loss of biodiversity is limited, as is the assessment of the consequences of such a loss for the functioning of ecosystems.

Time is no longer waiting for us to translate words into action, for we are on to being extinct on Earth. Evidences reveal that there have been at least five major extinctions of life in the past 500 million years on Earth. “Only 10% of world’s species survived the third mass extinction. Will any survive this one?” asks Niles Eldredge, a paleontologist & author of the book, The Sixth Extinction.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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