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This story is from January 6, 2022

India urges countries to join high ambition coalition to meet 30x30 target to protect the planet

India urges countries to join high ambition coalition to meet 30x30 target to protect the planet
NEW DELHI: India on Thursday urged countries to join the 'High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for nature and people' to push for a global goal to protect at least 30% of the planet by 2030 - called 30x30 target - under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and pitched for mobilizing more resources to support developing countries in this direction.
India is one of the 75 countries which joined the Coalition in the run up to the 15th conference of parties (COP15) of the UN's CBD in China in April-May.
Pakistan and Maldives are other south Asian countries which have joined the HAC.
Urging other countries to join the Coalition, environment minister Bhupender Yadav also requested global bodies including Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and the CBD to ensure timely and adequate resources for developing countries. He was virtually addressing the South Asian Consultation Meeting on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
The meeting, hosted by India, was attended by the representatives from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan in addition to representatives from the secretariat of the CBD and the French Embassy in New Delhi.
Yadav said that South Asia with its over 1.97 billion human population and high biological diversity face formidable developmental challenges and impediments, which are amplified by the weak socio-economic status and the presence of high natural resource dependent communities. "It is also necessary that tribal and other local communities which are cultivating or doing other activities for their livelihood should be exempted from the Biological Diversity Act to find balance between development of the local community and conservation of biodiversity," he said.

In the backdrop of the government's recent move to amend its Biological Diversity Act, the minister said that the law would be implemented to lay greater emphasis on the local community interest and to encourage research in the area of biodiversity to make necessary changes in policy to ensure more 'Access & Benefit Sharing' (ABS).
“We need to encourage investment for sustainable use with necessary regulation to increase ABS funds, which can be used for conservation of biodiversity and betterment of the local community,” he said.
As part of its multiple commitments, India has developed 'biodiversity registers' and expanded, so far, combined forest and tree cover to 24.56% of the total geographic area of the country.
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About the Author
Vishwa Mohan

Vishwa Mohan is Senior Editor at The Times of India. He writes on environment, climate change, agriculture, water resources and clean energy, tracking policy issues and climate diplomacy. He has been covering Parliament since 2003 to see how politics shaped up domestic policy and India’s position at global platform. Before switching over to explore sustainable development issues, Vishwa had covered internal security and investigative agencies for more than a decade.

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