HYDERABAD: The Prime Minister Tuesday announced 50 million U.S. dollars to strengthen the institutional mechanism for bio-diversity conservation in India. Addressing the 11th Conference of Parties on Convention on Biological Diversity here, Dr. Manmohan Singh said thesefunds will be used to enhance the technical and human capability of the national and state level mechanisms to attain objectives of convention on bio diversity. He said government has also earmarked funds to promote capacity building in developing countries. The Prime Minister said, developing new models of inclusive conservation is a challenge to protect environment and ecology in future. Stating that India has recently ratified Nagoya Protocol, he said global action on achieving UN targets of Biodiversity can not be delayed further and called upon member countries to follow suit. Dr Singh reiterated that India stands committed to biodiversity conservation linked with poverty reduction programmes. He explained about how livelihood is being provided to rural people under the Mahatma Gandhi National RuralEmployment Guarantee Programme which in turn is also facilitating conservation of resources Dr. Singh asserted that his government has legalised the rights of forest dwellers by passing Forest Rights Act and similar innovative approaches are under way to deal with the issue of protecting fishermen livelihoods. Outlining the measures being taken by India for protecting the endangered species, the Prime Minister said the Species Recovery Programme launched by the country has helped to protect 16 endangered species including Snow Lepeord and Lungoor. He said 600 protected areas covering 5 percent geographical area in the country are being conserved. In her opening remarks, Union Environment and forests Minister, Jayanthi Natarajan expressed concern that resource mobilization remained as most unfinished agenda in CoP11 deliberations so far and called upon participant countries to arrive at consensus on it soon. Source: The Indian Awaaz, Image: pixabay.com Under Creative Commons CC0
