NATIONAL BIODIVERSITY ACTION PLAN

by Geethanjali. K. V, Legal Associate, CEERA, NLSIU

Biodiversity is variety and variability of life on earth, which contributes through its ecosystem services to the human welfare. India harbors rich biodiversity and as a result a part of Indian population depends on the biodiversity for their livelihood; this puts the country in a position to prioritize its conservation. In the recent past, sharp rise in the rate of extinction of species has been reported. This cataclysmic event can be attributed to the habitat destruction and fragmentation which devoid the species of any opportunity to flourish and thrive. The Convention for Biological Diversity has three objectives, namely, conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of the components of biodiversity, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of genetic resources. The Convention is implemented through programmes/ strategic plans adopted by the Conference of Parties (CoP) to the CBD which are then incorporated in the National Biodiversity Action Plan (NBAP) by the Parties. Preparation of NBAP or equivalent documents and preparation of National Reports are two mandatory obligations of CBD as per Article 6 and Article 26 of the Convention, respectively. India submitted its Sixth National Report (NR 6) to the CBD on 29 December 2018. The Report comprehensively covers the progress in implementation of India’s NBAP. India became a Party to the CBD in 1993, and prepared its first NBAP (National Biodiversity Action Plan) entitled “National Policy and Macro Level Action Strategy on Biodiversity” in 1999, (referred to as Strategy, 1999 hereafter) to give effect to its commitments under the CBD. Enactment of Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (referred to as BD Act hereafter), followed this exercise to create the required legislative support base for the implementation of the Convention. Section 36(3) of the Act obligates the Central Government to “as far as practicable wherever it deems appropriate, integrate the conservation, promotion and sustainable use of biological diversity into relevant sectoral or cross-sectoral plans, programmes and policies.”

In pursuance of the mandate laid down in the Convention on Biological Diversity, which required the parties to formulate National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans, Action strategy was formulated in India in 1999. The preparation involved consultations, deliberations specifying the policy gaps and the way forward. 2002 marked the formulation of Biodiversity Act. In order to bring the action plan in consonance with the National Environment Policy, 2006, a second generation National Biodiversity Action 2008 was prepared.[1] The Strategy, 1999 was revised and updated into NBAP, 2008 to bring the biodiversity agenda in alignment with the NEP, 2006. This second generation of NBAP was further updated with Addendum 2014 to NBAP, 2008 in order to integrate the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-20 (SPB 2011-20) in NBAP which was adopted by CoP 10, held at Nagoya in the Prefecture of Aichi in Japan. The SPB 2011-20 includes 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets (ABTs) covered under five strategic goals to be implemented during 2011-20. Parties to CBD were required to develop National Biodiversity Targets (NBTs) in line with these 20 global ABTs taking into account their national priorities and needs towards achieving the globally shared Biodiversity Vision 2050.

National Environment Plan was declaration expressing the commitment of the country to the international environmental agreements. It focused on bringing a balance between economic, social and environmental needs. Conservation of the environmental resources which are in critical state, use of these resource while bearing in mind the principles of intra-generational equity and inter-generational equity, inclusion of environmental concerns as a determining factor while taking decisions regarding developmental activities, ensuring efficient environmental resource use, ensuring the development of environment governance which relies on the good governance principles, ensuring the enhancement of resources for environmental governance are the objectives of the policy, from which the crux of the policy can be inferred. Sustainable Development, Polluter Pays Principle, Precautionary Principle, Public Trust Doctrine are some of the principles, based on which this policy was shaped.[2]

The Action Plan (2008), before laying down the list of priority actions to be undertaken, analyzed the strategy deployed by India. India had adopted a strategy of conserving the biodiversity by either categorizing areas as national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, biosphere reserves, ecologically fragile or sensitive areas and by advancing protection accordingly. India also resorted to ex-situ measures like establishment of gene banks with an intention of furthering conservation. Further, consultations, planning with the stakeholders, externally aided project on ‘National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan’ (NBSAP) culminated into the Action Plan of 2008. Habitat fragmentation, degradation, shrinking  genetic  diversity; invasive alien species, declining forest resource base, climate change and desertification, over-exploitation  of resources, impact of development projects, and impact of pollution were some of the areas of concern identified. Habitats of Great Indian Bustard in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan, and that of the Lion-tailed Macaque in Western Ghats, which have been degraded in the recent past, has been brought within the restoration plans on the national agendas. With the encroachment of common property resources, human-animal conflicts have become a common sight. Shockingly, the sacred groves which were untouched for years have witnessed over-exploitation of plants with medicinal value. The vicious link between the habitat destruction resulting in decreasing genetic diversity, and in turn leading to outbreak of vulnerable diseases, was pointed at, in order to give a premise, hinting at the significance of these action plans. Declining trends recorded in the populations of Keystone and endemic forest species was a result of deforestation, indiscriminate felling, and collection of forest produce. With growing population, the demand for land grows. These demands are met by the government by diverting their development agenda towards the forest land. Such pressure of growing population is inflicted on the grasslands, coral reefs, coastal, wetland and marine ecosystems of the country.

Alien aquatic weeds like water hyacinth and water lettuce,  invasive plant species like  Lantana camara, Eupatorium glandulosum, Parthenium species, Mimosa species,  Mikania micrantha, Ulex enropaeus, Prosopis juliflora, Cytisus scoparius, Euphorbia royleana, etc., illegally introduced catfishes (like the African magur), the big head carp have emerged as a major threat to the native biodiversity. When provided with an option of either choosing gigantic development projects or serene environment flourishing with animal population, the choice has always been ‘development’. Such ignorant and oblivious choices have been the reason for the ultimate plunder.

The objectives of the NBAP are founded in the backdrop of the cardinal principles already set out in the NEP 2006. The most important of these principles is that human beings are at the center of sustainable development concerns. The other relevant principles on which the objectives are premised include the right to development, precautionary approach, economic efficiency, entities with ‘incomparable value’, equity, public trust doctrine, decentralization, integration, preventive actions, and environmental offsetting. After considering the ground realities, the action plan laid down certain objectives which are as follows:

1. Strengthening in-situ, on-farm and ex-situ conservation;
2. Utilization of bio resources in accordance with the principle of inter-generational equity;
3. Institutionalizing a system to regulate the introduction of invasive species;
4. Strengthening the capacity to face the negative implications of climate change and desertification after examining its intensity;
5. Integrating the biodiversity concerns into policies of the country;
6. Abating pollution;
7. Structuring and enabling a biodiversity database;
8. Strengthening the legal framework in such a way that it transforms into a better framework with required potential to undertake biodiversity conservation and management;
9. Developing human resources and empowering them with the capability required for encountering the challenges. Usage of new technologies is yet another objective;
10. To integrate biodiversity concerns into the decision making process and cost-benefit analysis by according values to the services rendered by the ecosystem;
11. To garner international support and cooperation through treaties and other arrangements with the concerned parties.

Expanding the network of protected areas, bringing a self -sustaining monitoring system into action to oversee the effectiveness of  establishment of such networks, employing measures to prevent the man-animal conflicts, carrying out intersectoral consultations before deciding on matters related to biodiversity, reintroducing the threatened plant species, taking actions against poaching and illegal trading, revising periodically the schedules of Wildlife Protection Act which lists down the species in accordance with their conservation status, encouraging low impact tourism, making efforts to conserve those species which inhabit areas beyond the areas earmarked as protected areas, conserving ecologically sensitive areas, preserving wetlands and river basins are some of the in-situ conservation measures. On farm Conservation includes the developing of on-farm conservation models. Carrying on ex-situ conservation of rare, endangered, endemic DNA profiling; developing a national database containing details of all the ex-situ conservation areas; resorting to zoos aquaria for conserving the animals; undertaking captive breeding projects of species; initiating research on reproduction and conservation of biology are yet other ex-situ conservation measures listed in the action plan.[3]

As the consequences of extinction intensified, the global community began to acknowledge the issue and were co-operating to mitigate and remedy the problem of loss of biodiversity. United Nations declared the years 2011 to 2020 as “United Nations Decade on Biodiversity” in order to foster the nations to contribute by implementing the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. The National Focal Points, United Nations Agencies and other actors were expected to create awareness regarding biodiversity, take such measures which would implement the Strategic Plan, establish coordination among various stakeholders involved, increase the mainstreaming efforts, and strengthen the implementation networks involved in this regard. The call was made for bringing the policies and targets in consonance with the Strategic Plan and Aichi Targets.[4] Further, in order to implement the Strategic Plan, frequent updating of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans in accordance with the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, structuring the national targets on the basis of the Strategic Plan and Aichi Targets, Integrating these targets into the national Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans, Implementing these National Plans along with monitoring the compliance were enlisted as the required actions. The Strategic Plan shares a vision of attaining a status by 2050, where the biodiversity is valued, conserved, judiciously used, where ecosystem services are maintained. Thus the aim is to achieve a healthy planet which would have regained its capability of catering the needs of human community.[5]

Considering the recurring references made to Aichi Targets, examining its significance and its relation to Biodiversity becomes imperative. The Aichi Targets are goals set under ‘Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020’ to be achieved by the stakeholders in order to save the biodiversity. ‘Strategic Goal-A’ sets a deadline of 2020, before which it aims creating awareness among people regarding the biodiversity values, incorporating such values into the legal framework at national level, abandoning subsidies or incentives which advance harmful impacts on the biodiversity, adoption of sustainable consumption and production by the governments, business men and stakeholders across the globe. ‘Strategic goal-B’ focuses on reducing the direct pressure on the natural habitats, aquatic ecosystem, coral reefs etc. Sustainable management was invoked and considered viable in this context, while addressing the repercussions of pollution, ocean acidification, forest loss, over-fishing, and invasion of alien species on the biodiversity. ‘Strategic Goal-C’ envisioned safeguarding the ecosystems, species and genetic diversity. By 2020, the aim was to conserve at least 17 per cent of terrestrial and inland water, and 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, to prevent the extinction of threatened species, to preserve the genetic diversity of cultivated plants and farmed and domesticated animals and of wild relatives. ‘Goal-D’ focused on enhancing ecosystem services rendered, which are beneficial to human beings. ‘Goal-E’ is of relevance, as it entrusted the parties with the responsibility of structuring their action plans by 2015. While focusing on implementation aspect, protecting such traditional knowledge and science based technologies relating to biodiversity was mentioned.[6] After the adoption of these international instruments, there was a requirement for revising the NBSAPs. Accordingly, India updated 2008 Plan in 2014.[7]

The action plan prepared in 2012 by Ministry of Environment and Forest has been mentioned in the 2014 Action Plan. Development of Site Specific Management Plans, Integration of Protected Areas, Participatory Wildlife Monitoring, Undertaking assessments of Protected Areas, Examining the progress of Climate Change adaptation measures, formed part of the Action Plan in 2012. This was in furtherance of Convention on Biological Diversity’s Programme of Work on Protected Areas.

Further, 2014 action plan laid down the national biodiversity targets along with the monitoring framework to back the implementation of the ideals of Convention on Biological Diversity. The progress made in creating awareness regarding conservation, status of the efforts made in incorporating biodiversity concerns into development policies, planning processes and Environmental Impact Assessment, trends in forest coverage, sustainable agriculture, conservation status of aquatic, mangrove and coastal ecosystem, current status of river water quality, outcomes of restoration programmes and invasive species management measures, successor failure of implementing National Biodiversity Action plans were some of the indicators which were to be monitored. 3 to 5 year duration has been prescribed for monitoring. After the end of three year, the data documented shall be presented. After a review process, the changes will be incorporated.[8]

Details of National Biodiversity Targets along with the Aichi Biodiversity Targets incepted in each National Biodiversity Targets and relevant Sustainable Development Goals are given below: (Source: Implementation of India’s National Biodiversity Action Plan An Overview 2019)

[1] Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, http://moef.gov.in/division/environment-divisions/conservation-and-survey-cs/convention-on-biological-diversity-cbd/ (accessed on 6 May, 2020)

[2] National Environment Policy 2006, India Environmental Portal, http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/nep2006e.pdf (accessed on 6 May, 2020)

[3] National Biodiversity Action Plan, 2008, Ministry of Environment and Forests

[4] United Nations Decade on Biodiversity 2011-2020, Convention on Biological diversity, https://www.cbd.int/doc/strategic-plan/UN-Decade-Biodiversity.pdf (accessed on 6 May, 2020)

[5] Convention on Biological diversity,https://www.cbd.int/doc/strategic-plan/2011-2020/Aichi-Targets-EN.pdf (accessed on 5 May, 2020)

[6] Aichi Biodiversity Targets, Convention on Biological Diversity, https://www.cbd.int/sp/targets/ (accessed on 6 May, 2020)

[7] Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, http://moef.gov.in/division/environment-divisions/conservation-and-survey-cs/convention-on-biological-diversity-cbd/ (accessed on 6 May, 2020)

[8] National Biodiversity Action Plan Addendum 2014 to NBAP 2008

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