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India Inc is yet to take an active part in conserving biodiversity of the country even though it is engaged in climate change programme, according to an expert on biodiversity.
Braulio F de Souza Dias, executive secretary, Convention on Biodiversity, Canada, hoped that the Conference of Parties (COP 11) to Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), scheduled to take place here between October 1 and 19, will help create more awareness among Indian corporate houses on biodiversity.
“Indian business houses have to go a long way. My perception is that the country’s corporate sector is widely engaged with climate change agenda but not that much with biodiversity,” Braulio F de Souza Dias, who would be participating in the COP 11 here, said from Canada.
Citing an example of Tokyo where a ‘global platform of business and biodiversity’ was created after the COP-10 in October 2010, Dias said a similar organisation at national level should be set up in India. The platform aims at promoting markets that support nature conservation and sustainable use.
“We look forward for more commitments from business sector in India as we see in some other countries like Japan,” he said.
Replying to query, he said countries at national and local level should also allocate more budgets towards conserving biodiversity.
“There is also a need for more transfer of funding from developed countries to developing nations and there is a need to enhance financial mechanism that could help the sustainability of the protected areas,” Dias said.
Talking about ecologically protected areas across the world, Dias said, “The most recent assessment has indicated that 25 per cent of all the protected areas in the world are effectively managed. About 40 per cent of the protected areas are insufficiently managed.”
On protection of marine areas, he said CBD aims to establish at least 10 per cent of the marine area under protected area from the current 4 per cent. Case studies have shown that there is a dramatic recovery of fishery stocks in some of the areas due to the protected area initiatives.
“The big challenge is how we expand this area so that we can help restore fisheries all over the world and food security for the livelihood of people,” he said.
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