COP 11 biodiversity: CBD Alliance: Looking beyond Hyderabad Biodiversity Summit

Let’s Get Beyond the Hyderabad Blues

Civil Society groups urge implementation of the Biodiversity Convention at COP11, Hyderabad, India

Hyderabad: Civil society, NGOs, and grassroots environmental groups belonging to the  CBD Alliance sent a strong message to the delegates gathered in Hyderabad for the 11^th Conference of Parties to the Convention of Biological Diversity:  focus on getting things done, and implement the treaty.

“The CBD process should bring sharp focus on implementation of the commitments made by governments over the past 20 years”, said S. Faizi, of the Indian Biodiversity Forum. “COP10 in Nagoya moved the biodiversity agenda significantly forward.   We have a new set of 20 targets, and only 8 years to achieve them.  COP11 doesn’t need to generate another stack of documents, and hold endless meetings.  We actuallyknow what needs to be done.”

Simone Lovera, Executive Director of the Global Forest Coalition, said:  “We’ve seen how the lack of funding, has frustrated the implementation of COP decisions and led to donor and corporate interests unduly influencing biodiversity policy making.  This is evident in the promotion of risky and untested Innovative Financial Mechanisms."

"We reject corporate-driven agendas to promote‘bioeconomy’ and the financialization of nature through perverse incentives like subsidies for biofuels, dangerous experiments in synthetic biology, genetically modified trees and geo-engineering”, added Lovera.

Gunn-Britt Retter of the Saami Council said:   “The importance of forest and agricultural biodiversity to the survival of indigenous peoples cannot be over emphasized.  Our food security, health and economic wellbeing have a direct relationship with our forest and agricultural biodiversity. The current emphasis on economic growth as a solution to the global economic crisis has affected indigenous peoples in far greater and disproportionate ways”.

“In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, small is beautiful.  We urge governments gathered in Hyderabad to support the biodiverse food systems of indigenous peoples and small farmers, which have been providing food for our peoples for millennia”, said Retter.

Marine and coastal biodiversity is a priority focus area of COP11, and the theme of International Year of Biodiversity 2012.   RamyaRajagopalanof the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers, said: 

“The serious threats to our oceans and coasts are well known.   Indigenous peoples and local communities are at the forefront of the struggles and initiatives to protect coastal and marine resources.  Yet, in the name of conservation and development, their lives and livelihoods are being destroyed.  Their full and effective participation is essential. Their experience, wisdom, knowledge and institutions should guide the CBD in its actions”. 

COP 11 biodiversity - The death of vultures in South Asia

CONSERVING THE VULTURES OF SOUTH ASIA

Over the last 20 years, South Asia’s vultures have declined precipitously. The Oriental white-backed vulture, the long-billed vulture, and the slender-billed vulture once numbered in the tens of millions.

These three species have now been reduced by 99 per cent. All three are listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and face imminent extinction.  The decline in vultures has been caused by diclofenac, a veterinary drug which is ingested by the birds when eating the carcasses of recently-treated animals.

Research has shown that eating even a very small amount of this drug can lead to death in Gyps species.

The loss of the vultures means the loss of a critically important ecosystem service. Animal carcasses are now being left to rot, leading to an enormous waste disposal problem and to a number of health concerns.

Feral dogs, dog attacks and the risk of rabies have all increased. Other impacts include groundwater contamination and loss of income for farmers, whose fields can become unusable for up to three weeks as a result of rotting carcasses.

The loss of vultures has also had severe social impacts on some communities, such as the Parsis, who traditionally offered their dead to the vultures in “Towers of Silence”, and the Jains, whose “Panjrapores” also relied on vultures.

COP 11: World Wide Views on Biodiversity: What the world thinks of biodiversity conservation

World Wide Views on Biodiversity (WWViews on Biodiversity) is a globe-encompassing democratic deliberation on biodiversity. On September 15, 2012, it gathered citizen views on international biodiversity policy issues and disseminated them to policymakers involved in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

The 3,000 participating citizens from 25 countries were selected to reflect the demographic diversity in their respective countries and regions. They were provided with unbiased information about biodiversity and the international discussions about policy measures to stop its decline, and they were given time to deliberate with fellow citizens.

Here are the results of WWViews in a nutshell:

1. Most citizens worldwide do have some knowledge of biodiversity

2. Citizens think most people in the world are seriously affected by biodiversity loss and more participants from developing countries than developed think that their country is so

3. Citizens worldwide are very concerned about the loss of biodiversity

4. The establishment of new protected areas should be given higher priority than economic aims

5. Efforts should be made to protect nature areas 

6. Eat less meat and intensify agricultural production

7. Incentives and subsidies leading to overfishing should be phased out

8. Protection of coral reefs is a shared responsibility

9. More protected areas should be established in the High Seas

10. All countries should pay for protecting biodiversity in developing countries

11. Benefit sharing should apply to genetic resources already collected

12. Use of genetic resources from the High Seas should benefit biodiversity

COP 11: Marine protected areas: Why local communities matter?

 

Faced with denial of their livelihoods in marine protected areas (MPAs), local fishing communities across the world have often opposed MPAs. Yet, indigenous peoples and local fishing communities are also known to have evolved effective systems, traditional and more recent, to govern their resources.

They are also known to be in the forefront of struggles that have challenged destructive and polluting developmental activities on the coast—struggles that have often cost them their lives but have undoubtedly helped in protecting marine and coastal biodiversity in significant ways.

Studies commissioned by ICSF in twelve countries—Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Thailand, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama—capture stories of of conflicts with MPA authorities and violations of the rights of local communities, but also stories of community-led efforts to conserve and manage fisheries resources. They demonstrate that communities are in fact part of the solution.

As governments and conservation organizations seek to expand coverage of areas under MPAs to meet the Aichi targets, of bringing 10 per cent of marine and coastal areas under a protected area system by 2020, they would do well to learn from such stories, to ensure that their efforts meet with ecological success in the longer-term, and contribute as well to poverty alleviation and socio-cultural and livelihood security.

COP 11 Biodiversity: Amina Mohamed, UN Assistant Secretary-General calls for protection of biodiversity and reduction of biodiversity loss

Speech delivered by

Ms. Amina Mohamed, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of UNEP

To the Eleventh Ordinary Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity

Hyderabad, India 8-19 October 2012 

Your Excellency, Minister of State Environment and Forests, Government of India, H.E Smt. Jayanthi Natarajan, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, 

It is a great pleasure to be here in Hyderabad on this occasion of the 11th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD and we are greatly honored by your presence here today. 

I wish to extend to you, your Excellency, your Government and the people of India our deep thanks for the warm welcome and generous hospitality accorded to us since our arrival in this beautiful and historic city of Hyderabad. 

At the outset, I would also like to take this opport! unity to congratulate the new CBD Executive Secretary, Mr. Braulio Ferr! eira De Souza Dias for accepting the offer to join the CBD Secretariat. I wish also to acknowledge the contribution of the outgoing Executive Secretary, Mr. Ahmed Djoghlaf in enhancing the work of the Convention. 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This meeting comes at an opportune and historic moment when the international community just renewed its commitments for sustainable development at the Rio+20 Summit.

Heads of States and nations recognized the crucial role of biodiversity in ensuring sustainable development. In addition, States recognized the need for cooperation in global partnership to protect and restore the health and integrity of the Earth’s ecosystems.

Rio+20 has launched the world on some new and potentially defining pathways for achieving a sustainable century—the inclusive Green Economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication. 

At the heart of many of the challenges in respect to biodiversity and ecosystems are the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources.

In celebrating the CBD 20th anniversary and may I in this respect also mention that it is UNEP’s 40th anniversary year, we note many achievements.

But we know that there is still a tremendous amount of work to do.

In advance of Rio+20, UNEP launched its flagsh! ip Global Environment Outlook-5 which benefited from many inputs from t! he CBD and the biodiversity community at large.

GEO-5 concluded that of 90 key agreed international sustainability targets, only four had been met.

In respect to biodiversity GEO-5 says:-

The world failed to reach the target of a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. This meant that:-

Around 20 per cent of vertebrate species ar! e under threat.

The extinction risk is increasing faster for corals than for any other group of living organisms, with the condition of coral reefs declining by 38 per cent since 1980. Rapid contraction is projected by 2050.

With more than 30 per cent of the Earth's land surface used for agricultural production, some natural habitats have been shrinking by more than 20 per cent since the 1980s.

How! ever, there has been some progress in terms of policy responses, such as increasing the coverage of protected areas both land and to a lesser extent marine.

The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing of genetic resources is another in where progress has been made. In this regard, I would encourage countries to ratify the Protocol as soon as possible to enable its entry into force.

So there are pluses but far too many negatives—many of which are well known and well documented.

But so are the solutions—the outcome of Rio+20 gives us renewed opportunity to achieve the objectives of the convention. The biodiversity and ecosystem community can be rightly proud of the way it has helped fuel that creative discourse not least through The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity and the work on realizing an Intergovernmental Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

The TEEB work in particular is assisting in informing the debate here in Hyderabad on the kind of funding that will be necessary to achieve the CBD’s 2020 Aichi targets.

There are ranges on the table which to some, in parts of the world still undergoing an on- going economic and financial crisis, may seem high.

But our collective experience and the new analysis through initiatives such as TEEB and others have illuminated that the costs of inaction are far higher and will rise and that the losses the world—especially the poor—are sustaining annually as a result of unsustainable management of the natural world dwarf the investments.

Furthermore, the private sector has a responsibility and a role to play too within the rules and regulations put in place by governments to ensure equity for all sectors of society.

I would be keen to explore with the CBD Executive Secretary and his team, ever improving synergies between the inclusive Green Economy work and the TEEB work and that of the treaty, in particular at the national level. 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

UNEP support to CBD 

Programatic collaboration and cooperation

UNEP and the CBD Secretariat have identified areas for enhanced programmatic collaboration and cooperation in the context of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and the Aichi biodiversity targets.

At the regional and national levels UNEP has deployed Biodiversity Multilateral Environmental Agreement (MEA) focal points in UNEP’s Regional Offices for Africa (Nairobi), Asia and the Pacific (Bangkok), West Asia (Manama), and Latin America and the Caribbean (Panama).

Their task is to enhance implementation of CBD and other bi! odiversity related Conventions and bodies including the Convention on Migratory Species, the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species; the wetlands treaty RAMSAR and (CMS, CITES, Ramsar, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources and the World Heritage Committee.

Enhancing the capacity of African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries

Since 2009, the African Caribbean and Pacific-MEAs project, funded by the European Union, have been building the capacity of ACP countries to better comply with their environmental obligations under selected MEAs.

One of the objectives of the Programme is to build and enhance capacity of ACP countries to better comply with, implement and enforce MEAs and related commitments to address the loss of biodiversity, drought, land degradation, and other threats to the environment. This is in line wi! th the realization of the three main objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Some of the results reached to date include the improvement of national and regional capacity of ACP countries. Compliance with, implementation of and enforcement of Parties obligations under the CBD have been improved as confirmed by the ACP countries themselves.   

Nagoya Protocol on ABS

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Last but not least, I wish to reiterate the call to all Parties to step up effort for the early ratification of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing—the Protocol’s go-ahead in Nagoya was really one of the high points of 2010 and that momentum and optimism needs to be maintained.

Equally ambition to support the ratification of the Nagoya – Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.

Both are important parts of the jigsaw puzzle towards ! promoting better sustainable use of genetic resources with equity and safety while being critical towards achieving the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

Honorable delegates, ladies and gentlemen, only time will tell if Rio+20 proves to be a game-changer in humanity’s relationship with the natural world and those essential, multi-trillion dollar services that maintain and support us all.

In order for the outcomes to flourish and to take meaning, all segments of the sustainable development landscape need to perform and to deliver on their part of the package, on their areas of responsibility.

I trust that the CBD’s 11th meeting of the parties will be part of that transformation to the Future We Want and the Future seven billion people need. 

COP 11 biodiversity: Aichi targets - Opening remarks by Braulio Ferreira De Souza Dias, executive secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity

OPENING REMARKS BY

                                            BRAULIO FERREIRA DE SOUZA DIAS

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY

CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

                                              

ELEVENTH MEETING OF THE PARTIES

TO THE

CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

  

Hyderabad, India

8 OCTOBER 2012

Excellency Ms. Jayanthi Natarajan, Minister of Environment and Forests of India,
Excellency Mr. Kiran Kumar Reddy, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh,
Mr. Matsumoto, former Minister of Environment of Japan and COP-10 President,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Through you, Excellency, I would like to express our very deep gratitude to the Government of India for its generosity and for hosting this very important gathering in Hyderabad, the capital city of Andhra Pradesh, in such a wonderful and inspiring setting.

Our deep gratitude also goes to the authorities of the State of Andhra Pradesh and the City of Hyderabad for their very warm hospitality and the welcome extended to participants.

Excellency,

Your presence among us today is a reflection of the importance that India attaches to achieving the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity: the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge.

I cannot think of a better place to hold the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties. Indeed, India boasts an extraordinarily rich biodiversity - as evidenced by its membership in the group of megadiverse countries - as well as one of the most ancient, vast and diversified cultures in the world. The huge body of traditional knowledge associated with biological diversity developed in India is both oral and coded, as are the texts of Indian systems of medicine, such as Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha.

Notions, values, concepts and ideas, present and past, are rooted and nurtured in traditional knowledge, and this richness and particular worldview is expressed and realized in many different ways, from languages to social structure, subsistence practices, medical and agricultural knowledge, as well as artistic and religious expressions, to mention just a few.

Yet, life in India is in many ways a blend of modernity and tradition. Let me recall, in this connection, a statement of Mahatma Gandhi.

He said:

“I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures and traditions of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible.”

Gandhi implied, of course, that there should be no boundaries between modern life and tradition, and that a borderless mind and borderless thinking alone can lead to a happy and prosperous world. I invite all delegates to reflect on these wise words in the next two weeks.

I also take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation to the Governments that have provided generous financial support to ensure large participation by developing countries in this meeting. They are the Governments of Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Spain and Sweden.  I thank them for their active and continued support for the Convention. In this connection, I am pleased to inform you that no less than 173 Parties have pre-registered for this meeting and more than 14,400 participants are pre-registered, making it one of the largest biodiversity gatherings ever.

The tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties led to two historic achievements: the adoption of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from Their Utilization and the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and its Aichi Targets. Furthermore, at its previous meetings, the Conference of the Parties had adopted an impressive body of principles, guidelines and other decisions to implement the Convention.

We must now put all our efforts, energy and resources into implementing these decisions and agreements.

In this connection, I invite you to review progress toward the entry into force of the Nagoya Protocol and ensure that all Parties receive the support needed to ratify it and to discharge their obligations under the Protocol, so as to facilitate its early entry into force and effective implementation.

Ninety-two Parties to the Convention from all regions have signed the Nagoya Protocol and, thus far, six Parties have deposited their instruments of ratification (Gabon, Jordan, Mexico, Rwanda, Seychelles and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic). I am aware that many other Parties are working on their national ratification processes and are expected to ratify in the near term. I urge you all to ratify as soon as practicable, to ensure that the first meeting of the Parties to the Protocol is held in conjunction with our next meeting.

In the two years since COP-10 in Nagoya, Parties have embarked on an effort to review their national biodiversity strategy and action plans (NBSAPs) to reflect the targets agreed in Nagoya. Thanks to generous support from the Government of Japan, through the Japan Biodiversity Fund, and from other donors, the Secretariat has organized 21 regional and subregional workshops with more than 900 participants from 166 parties in support of the review of NBSAPs.

In this connection, I am pleased to report that 10 Parties have reviewed their NBSAPs in line with the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and many more are in the process of reviewing their NBSAPs. Up to now, GEF has approved projects to support 109 Parties to review their NBSAPs, in accordance with the decision taken by COP-10, and 11 more are pending. Additionally, 107 Parties have submitted their protected areas action plans, contemplating both continental and marine areas and including needs assessment and new national targets.

The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and its Aichi Biodiversity Targets will be central to our actions in this decade. I urge you, in Hyderabad, to mobilize the financial resources needed to enable developing countries to achieve the Aichi Targets at national level. In so doing, we will need to be creative and involve all partners.

We need to go beyond needs identification to adopt new approaches and mechanisms, emphasizing the leveraging of resources from existing sources through mainstreaming, incorporating sustainability criteria in government procurement, reviewing and adjusting of economic instruments, further engaging the business sector, etc. We will be judged by our acts, not our words.

I am pleased to report that 25 Parties have made submissions on resources allocated to biodiversity from different funding sources. These reports, though preliminary in nature, do offer a useful perspective on the baseline for the conference’s deliberations on resource mobilization, as well as relevant information on the diversity of funding sources available for biodiversity.

Beyond these immediate issues and the many other items on our busy agenda, I would like to invite you to reflect on how we “do business” under the Convention. We need to rethink our approach to the Convention and its Protocols, notably to ensure that proper linkages are maintained between them and that they operate in an integrated manner.

I also believe that, at this stage, we should move towards a more pragmatic approach, with less emphasis on negotiations and more emphasis on experience-sharing in our pursuit of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. To do this, we must rethink meetings of the Conference of the Parties with a view to having a more streamlined agenda, which will leave more time for needed dialogues and sharing of experiences on issues of implementation. I hope to discuss this issue with you in the next two weeks and give shape to this new approach.

The mainstreaming of biodiversity in national development agendas remains a challenge for most Parties. Biodiversity should not be perceived only as a problem, but rather, for what it really is: a crucial asset which underpins sustainable development and is closely linked to many social and economic issues.

Let me also recall that the United Nations Rio + 20 common vision of « the Future We Want » recognized that biodiversity plays a critical role in maintaining ecosystems that provide essential services, which are the foundation of human wellbeing and underpin our efforts to eradicate poverty. In this connection, the delivery of a new framework for after 2015 towards sustainable development goals, to be discussed by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2013, provides a unique opportunity to emphasize the importance of biodiversity and ecosystems services for sustainable development goals, including the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. I invite the Conference of the Parties to seize this opportunity.

Additionally, we also need to put in place an effective and continuous monitoring system for the Aichi Targets, so as to be aware of whether we remain on track with regard to achieving the Targets and inform our decisions accordingly.

Since my appointment in January of this year, I have been reflecting, and discussing with my staff, on how to restructure the Secretariat and how to prioritize its activities so as to best serve Parties in this new era of focus on implementation. I believe that the Secretariat – working with and through partners – should strive to catalyse and provide support to developing countries by strengthening their capacity to implement the Convention and its strategic goals and targets, and that this could be best achieved through a more structured and continuous capacity development processes at regional and subregional levels. To do this, we need to strengthen our collaboration with key partners, such as our host organization, UNEP, as well as UNDP, FAO, UNESCO and others.

In this context, we should also make full use of all the mechanisms envisaged under the Convention in order to achieve our common objectives. I particularly see a need to strengthen scientific, technical and technological cooperation amongst Parties and to make better use of the clearing-house mechanism to facilitate and recognize such cooperation. I look forward to discussions on these matters in the coming days.

I believe we need to promote stronger recognition of and support for community-based approaches to pursuing the human benefits of biodiversity conservation, including food security and poverty alleviation. While we are aware of the critical role of local communities in the stewardship and sustainable management of natural resources, we often tend to take their efforts for granted. Not only do I think that we need to acknowledge this important contribution to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, I am also convinced that there is a lot that we can learn from their approaches.

I believe that we must also continue to work closely with indigenous communities, from whom we have much to learn with regard to the sustainable management of biodiversity. They are key partners.

We also must strengthen the engagement of other partners, in particular the business community, which stands to contribute a lot to the achievement of our common goals.

I wish to seize this opportunity to recognize the very significant contribution of cities and local authorities to our efforts to achieve the goals of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. Indeed, our actions must be coordinated at all levels, not only horizontally but also vertically. This is why I most welcome the third summit for mayors and governors, the Cities for Life Summit, the establishment of networks of cities and subnational authorities, as well as the engagement of members of the Advisory Committee of cities and subnational governments.

Finally I would like to make a strong call to all Parties, partners and stakeholders. If we really want to fully achieve the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets, urgent attention needs to be given to at least half of them to ensure their full implementation, or at least significant progress, by 2015.

These are:

• Target 1, to promote public awareness and engagement;
• Target 2, to incorporate the values of biodiversity into national development and poverty reduction strategies and plans and into national accounting and reporting;
• Target 3, to implement the reform of economic incentives and the creation or expansion of financial mechanisms;
• Target 4, to promote sustainable production and consumption, where I would suggest an emphasis on the establishment of green procurement rules and promotion of an inclusive green economy;
• Target 10, to reduce the pressures on coral reefs and other vulnerable ecosystems impacted by climate change;
• Target 11, where an early push for the expansion of protected areas systems should be made to allow sufficient time to reach effectiveness by 2020;
• Target 15, where significant progress should be made to establish scalled-up restoration initiatives to allow for the growth of trees and other organisms by 2020;
• Target 16, to ratify the Nagoya Protocol and adopt the necessary national legislation and governance structure for access and benefit-sharing;
• Target 17, to adopt revised NBSAPs, including national targets, as policy instruments, with full participation of all stakeholders and sectors; and
• Target 20, to mobilize the financial resources needed to support the implementation of all the other Aichi Targets.

The decision you will take in this Conference on target-setting for resource mobilization, as well as the decision on the budget for the Convention for the biennium 2013–2014, will be crucial to pushing for the implementation of the Aichi Targets. Yes, we are facing times of financial crisis, but times of crisis are the best opportunities to make substantive changes in the way we do business. Expenditures on biodiversity should not be seeing as costs – they should be seen as investments that will pay back with significant environmental, social and economic benefits for all our societies.

I would like to end with an invitation to each Party and partner to this Convention to select one or more of the Aichi Targets andto become a regional or a global champion for its achievement.

With this, I wish you the best of luck in your deliberations in these two weeks, and I reiterate our deep appreciation to the Government of India, the authorities of Andhra Pradesh and the City of Hyderabad for hosting this meeting in such a wonderful and inspiring setting.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Namaste

COP 11 biodiversity: ction in support of Biodiversity urgently needed: UN Meeting on Biodiversity opens in Hyderabad India

Hyderabad, India 8 October 2012 - Representatives from over 170 countries today began deliberations in Hyderabad, India, on the way forward to protect the planet’s biodiversity.

The eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11­) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), known as COP 11 for short, follows on the historic outcomes of the 2010 Nagoya biodiversity summit.  In Nagoya, governments adopted a new Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, and two new supplementary protocols to the CBD, setting the course for halting biodiversity loss by the end of the current decade.

Mr. Ryu Matsumoto, the former Minister of the Environment of Japan, who served as COP 10 President in Nagoya, said at the opening:  "While the COP10 outcomes are remarkable achievements, there will be no change unless they are implemented. At COP11, I trust that we can agree on further measures to overcome challenges that require additional efforts."

At the meeting, the Government of India assumed the Presidency of COP 11.  During their term, which runs from 2012 until 2014, the government of India will preside over the implementation of the work of the Convention, including the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and its Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

Ms Jayanthi Natarajan, Minister of Environment and Forests, Government of India and COP 11 President, said that: “The present global economic crisis should not deter us, but on the contrary encourage us to invest more towards amelioration of the natural capital for ensuring uninterrupted ecosystem services, on which all life on Earth depends. Let us all be inspired by what Mahatma Gandhi said: ‘The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems’. So let us commit ourselves to what we are capable of doing.”

In his opening remarks, Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, the Executive Secretary to the Convention on Biological Diversity said: “I urge you, in Hyderabad, to mobilize the financial resources needed to enable developing countries to achieve the Aichi Targets at national level. In so doing, we will need to be creative and involve all partners.”

“We need to … adopt new approaches and mechanisms, emphasizing the leveraging of resources from existing sources through mainstreaming, incorporating sustainability criteria in government procurement, reviewing and adjusting of economic instruments, and further engaging the business sector,” adding, “We will be judged by our acts, not our words.”

The meeting is mandated to consider, among others, the mobilization of resources in support of the Global Strategy for Biodiversity and its Aichi Targets, a report on the identification of ecologically and biologically significant areas in marine ecosystems as well as a number of other items related to the protection of biodiversity in marine ecosystems; ecosystem restoration and the relationship between biodiversity and climate change.

The meeting continues until 19 October 2012, with a high-level segment featuring the participation of ministers and heads of State that runs from 16 to 19 October 2012.

COP 11 biodiversity: Governments invest too slowly in planet’s natural wealth, WWF tells CBD delegates

Governments meeting in India to make key decisions on our planet’s future have to prove the deal they struck two years ago was not just a display of good will but a serious commitment.

Over 190 nations will meet in Hyderabad from 8th to 19th October to discuss implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity, a legally binding treaty governing the sustainable use of our planet’s natural wealth.

Two years ago governments agreed to set the world on a course to help prevent further species extinctions and the decline of the world’s most valuable nature.

But since this historic achievement, many have failed to deliver on the promises and commitments made in Japan. WWF is calling on all nations who gather in Hyderabad to urgently start implementing the previously agreed targets.

“What was agreed in Nagoya really has the power to halt the dramatic loss of biodiversity across the globe and address the main drivers of the destruction.”

“But now governments must prove that Nagoya was not just a platform for empty promises. They need to start taking real steps and implement the targets and commitments they agreed on,” said Lasse Gustavsson, WWF International’s Executive Director for Conservation.

“The targets agreed at the CBD in 2010 show that countries have the will to come together to protect our planet. Now they must put money behind their promises and turn their words into action.”

Progress…but not enough

An overwhelming 91 percent of Parties to the CBD have developed strategies and plans for their approach to protect nature and biodiversity. But only 14 Parties have revised their plans taking into consideration the strategic plan agreed in Nagoya, and even fewer have taken measures to integrate the services that nature provides into their development plans.

Yet even amidst this dismal performnce, some nations have stepped up and are starting to make good on the commitments they voiced in Nagoya.

In Indonesia, the government has agreed a US$28.5 million debt-for-nature swap with the US for a forest-carbon-biodiversity conservation program.

In Guyana, a conservation trust fund was launched in July 2012 that paves the way for establishing a National Protected Areas Trust Fund.

And European countries have agreed a strategy to meet the CBD targets across the European Union which if implemented could help halt biodiversity loss by 2020.

“Governments can only be serious about these targets if they are prepared to invest in achieving them. We need to see richer countries helping poorer countries and all countries increasing their domestic budgets,” said Rolf Hogan, Biodiversity Policy Coordinator at WWF International.

“Nature underpins our existence on earth and governments need to invest in nature if they are serious about our future. Protecting biodiversity and nature is an investment in the future.”

Tsunami in Japan impacts pearl industry in Hyderabad

2011
Syed Akbar
Hyderabad:  The tsunami and subsequent radiation threat in Japan has an unique impact on Hyderabad. This ciity of pearls is hit hard  with the killer tsunami badly damaging oyster culture farms and the subsequent high doses of radiation killing the molluscs that had survived the natural disaster on March 11.
According to local traders, the city pearl industry is feeling the impact of the tsunami damage to oyster farms in Japan. City pearl dealers are in constant touch with their counterparts in Japan for update on the tsunami loss.
"We will know the quantum of impact on the pearl industry in Hyderabad only after a week," said Satish Agarwal, a pearl trader. He said he "cannot assess the impact right now".
Hyderabad imports about 22 to 25 tonnes of pearls from various parts of the world including the Arabian Gulf, Indonesia, Japan and China. The share of Japanese natural pearls in the city's market is around 17 per cent. Incidentally, Japanese pearls have been sold in Hyderabad for almost 80 years.
Though China of late, sends the largest quantity of pearls to Hyderabad, the Chinese pearls, mostly fresh water cultured, do not command higher prices. Japanese pearls rank next only to those harvested in the Arabian Gulf, particularly the Basra region. The pearl business in the city is about Rs 500 crore worth, with the Japanese pearls contributing a share of Rs 90 crore a year.
"Hyderabad has no coastline. It does not cultivate pearls either. But it is called the city of pearls, because of its historic links to the world pearl trade for almost 400 years. Still Hyderabad is the only city in the world to handle such a big volume of pearls," said Mushtaq Farooqui, another pearl trader.
Till a few years ago, Hyderabad used to process raw pearls with expert workers polishing, piercing, and stringing pearls from around the world "In olden days almost 80 per cent of pearls produced in the world used to pass through Hyderabad market. The first Japanese natural pearls entered the city market during the regime of Nizam VII, Mir Osman Ali Khan, though historically Hyderabad had links with the Arabian, particularly Basra pearls," said diamonds and pearls expert Kaleemullah Siddiqui. Pearl traders fear that the supply 
from Japan will resume only after the next oyster harvest season. Oyster larvae are now being imported from the USA for the next season. Added to the devastation caused by tsunami, rise in temperature due to global warming and sea water contamination has affected the quality of Japanese pearls.

Death of a river? Will Polavaram project kill the river Sabari?

By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad: The picturesque Sabari river that originates in the hilly jungles of the tribal Bastar in Chastisgarh will lose its basic character if the State government goes ahead with the controversial Polavaram project across the river Godavari.
Sabari flows for about 30 km in Andhra Pradesh after entering the State from Chattisgarh and joins the river Godavari at Kunavaram in Khammam district. Once the Polavaram project is constructed, the backwards will extend up to the Chattisgarh border wiping out the Sabari from the face of Andhra Pradesh.
"Polavaram will not only affect the lovely Papi Hills, part of Eastern Ghats, with their unique flora and fauna, but also damage the Sabari river system. The river system of other tributaries will also be hit badly affecting the overall Godavari hydrological cycle," argues irrigation expert Nitin Desai.
The backwaters of Polavaram will not allow the Sabari to drain into the Godavari when the dam is full. The overall length of the Sabari will be reduced by about 30 kilometres which will severely upset the ecology of this tribal river.
According to environmental activist Bhiksham Gujja, even the river system of Sileru that flows through the Eastern Ghats and joins the Sabari on Andhra Pradesh-Chattisgarh-Orissa borders will suffer heavily. "The river rises as the Machkund in the Eastern Ghats in northeastern Andhra Pradesh. Leaving the Machkund reservoir, it flows as the Sileru parallel to the mountain ranges at an elevation of 2,000-3,000 feet in a northeast-to-southwest direction to empty into the Sabari," he says.
Since the Sileru joins the Sabari at the AP border, the backwaters of Polavaram will also prevent Sileru from emptying fully into Sabari.
The Sabari river is not only important from environment point of view but also from the historical perspective. The river was mentioned in several of the ancient texts of India.
A team of irrigation experts and environmentalists on Wednesday visited the Polavaram dam site and studied the impact of the dam on the environment, wildlife as well as the tributaries of the Godavari. Former CWC member Vidyasagar is of the view that there would be larger environmental havoc if the natural river system was disturbed. In the case of Polavaram, not only the Godavari river is exploited, but also its tributaries.
"Generally, only one river is affected by dam. But in the case of Polavaram several tributaries along with the main river Godavari are affected. This is something unpardonable," Vidyasagar observes.

Golden Gecko species found in Papikonda Hills

By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad: A team from the World Wide Fund for Nature, Hyderabad, has found Golden Gecko, a rare and endangered species, from the magnificent but severely threatened Papikonda hills abutting the river Godavari in the northern Eastern Ghats in the State.
The animal, known to scientists as Calodactylodes aureus, was previously recorded in Andhra Pradesh only from the Seshachalam hills of the southern Eastern Ghats.
According to WWF Hyderabad head Farida Tampal, this severely endangered lizard, recognised in and protected by the Schedule I Part II of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, belongs to Gekkonidae, a family consisting of some of the most primitive living lizards.
The genus Calodactylodes consists of large, distinctive geckos inhabiting rocky habitat in peninsular India and Sri Lanka. The Golden Gecko holds special interest to herpetologists as it represents one of only two known species in the genus Calodactylodes, considered relics of the Gondwana period in the earth’s geological history.
According to her, a short but intensive survey was conducted to investigate the population size and extent in the locality. Sub adult golden geckos were also encountered and were often brownish grey coloured, becoming increasingly golden coloured, with adult males prominently golden in colour, giving rise to its distinguishing name. Adults often display territorial behaviour and are very vocal and aggressive, fighting off invaders with great ferocity.
According to existing literature, the Golden Gecko was first discovered in Arcot and Vellore in 1870, with a second population being reported from Seshachalam and Velikonda hill ranges in Andhra Pradesh in 1985 and very recently from Niyamgiri hills in Orissa. The locality where the gecko was sighted is part of the Perantalapalle Reserve Forest of Khammam district, and is situated next to the Papikonda Wildlife Sanctuary. The discovery of the Golden Gecko from this region confirms its contiguous existence in the southern and northern Eastern Ghats.
"However, this rare and endangered species is facing an imminent threat from the construction of the Indira Sagar Project (Polavaram project) which threatens to inundate this entire stretch of the Eastern Ghats with the flood waters. A forest area of 88.1 hectares of the Perantalapalle RF will be submerged when the project is completed, threatening the fragile environment of the Eastern Ghats and placing the existence of the Golden Gecko in grave jeopardy," she pointed out.
The governments’ policy of pursuing such development project without due consideration for the environment could render several such endemic and range restricted species inhabiting the Eastern Ghats permanently extinct before being recognised by science.

Natural colours from bacteria, mushrooms

2007
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, Nov 3: Natural colours obtained from bacteria, mushrooms and other fungi are all set to adorn clothes and crafts in the international market.
Pioneering research by Dr K Perumal and others on microbial dyes has produced an array of natural colours that could be used for dyeing clothes, stone works and handicrafts. These colours are eco-friendly and harmless both to the users and the manufacturers. Even dyes obtained from poisonous fungi are safe on the skin.
According to Dominique Cardon of Unesco, who is currently in the city to participate in the international conference on natural dyes, the colours obtained from fungi are unique in pattern and colour intensity. "A synthetic dye simply gives one colour whereas a dye obtained from fungus, mushroom or bacteria gives an array of colours. It is a cocktail of colours and is very rich in colour intensity and fastness," she said.
Dominique pointed out that the research on natural dyes from microbial agents by Indian scientists would revolutionise the world of natural colours and greatly benefit artisans and artists. "We have scores of coloured fungi and mushrooms. There are coloured bacteria too. Using industrial techniques the scientists obtained colours. These colours can be mixed in different combinations to obtain rare colour patterns," the French researcher pointed out.
Though dyes based on fungi, especially lichens, have been used for quite some time, the technique adopted by Indian scientists is the first of its kind. Colours like browns, yellows and greys are easily obtained from common fungi varieties available in the country.
The colours of the pH indicator, litmus, and various reds, yellows and mauve are also available especially when using appropriate mordants. The commonly used Litmus (of litmus test fame) is also a dye extracted from fungus of the genus Roccella. In alkaline conditions it is blue. As the dying conditions became more acidic, the colour changes from blue to purple and then red.
She said these colours can be fixed to the cloth by using an appropriate mordant. With the increase in the cost of petroleum products, manufacturers are increasingly turning to fungi for their colouring needs. The demand for natural colours has also gone up in the international market and the Indian dyes from fungi and bacteria are going to play a major role.

Cyclone silences dengue virus!

2004
Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, Oct 30: The cyclonic rains might have left a trail of misery for many, but they also heralded good news for people living in dengue-hit areas.
The cyclone, which crossed the sea coast on Monday evening, has silenced the powerful dengue virus. The sudden drop in temperature followed by washing away of stagnant water due to heavy rains has turned the dengue virus dormant and its vector, mosquito, ineffective.
The rains also proved beneficial to standing crop spread over lakhs of hectares, particularly cotton and other commercial crops in the coastal belt. The rains provided the much-needed moisture to the drying up crops and brought smile back on the faces of farmers.
Health officials in Visakhapatnam heaved a sigh of relief as the dengue incidence came down in the city. "There is a sudden drop in the temperature from 37 degrees C to 24 degrees C. This has led to dengue virus going dormant. At such temperatures, the virus becomes incapable of spreading," Visakhapatnam municipal chief medical officer Dr M S Raju said.
According to him, many communicable diseases turn dormant normally during December. But the inclement weather has advanced the dormancy mode. The weather came in handy for us to control further outbreaks of dengue, he added.
Senior health officials in Hyderabad, however, do not agree with Dr Raju. "The explanation is unscientific," says Dr IV Rao, director of medical education.
However, both Raju and Rao agree that the rains may cause water borne diseases like diarrhoea. No fresh cases of dengue have been reported from
Vizianagaram, Srikakulam and rural areas of Visakhapatnam following the rains.
The rains have come in as a blessing in disguise for cotton farmers in Guntur district. Since cotton crop is in budding stage, the rains have stabilised the inflorescence. The flowering was about to wither away but the rains stabilised them. This may give a yield of four to five quintals per acre.
Farmer activist Dr Yalamanchili Sivaji said the rains had helped plantation of tobacco. Crops like Bengal gram and chilli have also stabilised thanks to the timely rains.