India urges Nations to put Nature at the heart of recovery plan post COVID19

Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Prakash Javadekar urged nations to join hands at the start of the “UN Decade of Action and Delivery for Sustainable Development” to put nature at the heart of our recovery plan and realize the vision of “living in harmony with nature”. Shri Javadekar represented India at the virtual Ministerial Roundtable Dialogue on Biodiversity Beyond 2020: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth.

 

The ministerial was hosted by China, one week ahead of the upcoming United Nation Summit on Biodiversity, to exchange views on biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.   Around 15 ministerial representatives from countries with adequate regional representation, as well as the heads from relevant international organizations participated in the event.

Addressing on the occasion, Shri Prakash Javadekar stated that COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the fact that unregulated exploitation of natural resources coupled with unsustainable food habits and consumption patterns lead to the destruction of systems that support human life.

He further stated that India has already been taking a leadership role in biodiversity conservation by hosting two Conference of Parties (COPs) within a span of less than a year, UNCCD COP in Sept 2019 and CMS COP in February 2020 and informed that with just 2.4% of the land area, India accounts for nearly 8% of the recorded species even while supporting almost 18% of the human population as well as cattle population and has also enhanced forest cover to nearly 25%. In addition, India aims to restore 26 million hectares of degraded land, and achieve land-degradation neutrality by 2030.

He also informed the roundtable that India being a megadiverse country, has a robust legal and institutional set up for biodiversity governance and an established system for access and benefit-sharing provisions of the CBD, with a network of 250 thousand Biodiversity Management Committees across the country involving local people and 170 thousand Peoples Biodiversity Registers for documentation of biodiversity.

Shri Javadekar stated that in view of the Global Biodiversity Outlook report presented recently by CBD, we have no option left except to join hands and to conserve and protect nature and said that India believes that the 15^th Conference of Parties to the CBD scheduled in 2021 at Kunming, China for adoption of post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework provides a unique opportunity.

GK

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