India has committed itself to achieving the 2010 Biodiversity targets set by the 6th conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, to significantly reduce rate of loss of biodiversity. This was stated by the National Biodiversity Authority Chairman Dr.P.L.Gautam while addressing the special session on biodiversity and sustainable development at the 97th Indian Science Congress in Thriruvananthanpuram today. The framework for achieving the biodiversity targets includes focal areas viz. Protecting the components of biodiversity; promoting sustainable use; addressing threat to biodiversity; protecting traditional knowledge, etc.

It may be mentioned that U.N. General Assembly has proclaimed 2010 as the international year of biodiversity (IYB) aiming at-

• Enhancing public awareness of the importance of conserving biodiversity and underlining threats to biodiversity.
  
• Raising awareness of the accomplishment to save biodiversity.
  
• Promoting innovative solutions to reduce the threats to bio diversity.
  
• Encouraging individuals, organizations and governments to take steps to halt biodiversity loss.

Dr. Gautam said that India is party to the international Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) held in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil on June-15, 1993. India is a mega diverse country with only 2.4% of the land area, and 4%of water accounts for 7-8% of the recorded species of the world. India possesses 45,968 species of plants and 91,212 species of animals which have been documented so far and most of the species are under the verge of extinction e.g.: wild rice varieties, tiger, great Indian bustard and butterflies. According to Dr. Gautam so far 22 states including Kerala have constituted state level biodiversity boards. The National Biodiversity Authority has created a biodiversity fund with a corpus of rupees 50Laks and it is increasing every year. The fund is created for channelling benefits to claimants, conservation and promotion of biological resources or knowledge associated and socio-economic development of the areas.

The convention of biodiversity came into force on Dec-29-1993.India became a party to the convention on Feb-18, 1994. At present there are 191 parties to the convention. To commemorate the adoption of the text of the convention on 22-May 1992 the International Day for Biological Diversity is celebrated on this day

Source : Press Information Bureau
Date : January 07, 2010