Prime Minister Manmohan Sigh on Tuesday pledged $50 million — around `270 crores — towards protecting biodiversity.
India is currently the chair of the 11th Conference of Parties (CoP-11) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and will lead the world in conservation of biological diversity for the next two years.
Before making the “Hyderabad pledge” on mobilisation of financial resources to the CBD, Dr Singh launched the high-level segment meeting of the CoP-11 attended by ministers and heads of governments of more than a 100 countries.
The CBD, which had set a target of achieving 20 important measures in the next eight years, is severely cash-strapped and India’s commitment has given a boost to the convention’s fund mobilisation drive. In fact, Japan has already announced its share of funds. “I am pleased to launch the Hyderabad pledge and announce that our government has decided to earmark a sum of $50 million during India’s presidency of the CoP-11 to strengthen the institutional mechanism for biodiversity conservation in India. We will use these funds to enhance the technical and human capabilities of our national and state-level mechanisms to attain the CBD objectives. We have also earmarked funds to promote similar capacity-building in developing countries,” Dr Singh said.
Stating that biological diversity was nature’s insurance against extreme events that might disturb the earth’s delicate balance, the Prime Minister said, “We need to work together and act before a catastrophe is upon us.”
He also urged all countries to ratify the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing to genetic resources and pointed out that concerted global action was imperative and would not brook any further delay.