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News and Views |
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Regional Dialogue on Biodiversity Conservation |
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A regional dialogue on “Implementation of biological diversity act and priorities for biodiversity conservation, sustainable utilization and benefit sharing” was held at at IIMA on 1st February, 2009. Dr P L Gautam, Chairman National Biodiversity Authority, Chennai, chaired the day long workshop. He shared various provisions of the Biodiversity Act, its role and implications. The purpose of the workshop was to discuss and fill the gap in knowledge, policies and research so that a rich agenda for future engagements could be worked out. National Biodiversity Authority wants to pursue the agenda so evolved in a systematic manner in the years to come.
Highlights
· A separate national level interface meeting was needed to discuss problems faced in implementation, interpretation and definition of the Biodiversity Act.
· Capacity building programs for state biodiversity boards were needed.
· May 22nd is the International Biodiversity Day and National Biodiversity Authority can plan some events on the day.
· A handy manual in regional languages is needed to generate awareness about conservation of biodiversity giving appropriate examples.
· Benefit sharing guidelines prepared by SRISTI may be shared by NBA with different stakeholders.
· Implementation of PBR (People's Biodiversity Register) needs to be simplified and capacity building for the same can be done by NIF.
· Involvement of herbal healers or local healers in BMC (Biodiversity Management Committee) or village committee can help in the cause of conservation.
· Linking BMC with existing JFM (Joint Forest Management) bodies may be tried.
· An amendment is needed in the act for habitat conservation.
· National Task Force needs to be set up for long term monitoring of biodiversity. There are hardly any long term monitoring sites.
· An orientation cum field based curriculum for three months course on biodiversity mapping, classification and identification, is needed in consultation with the University Grants Commission at graduate level, aimed at engaging the young generation in the the work of biodiversity conservation.
· A separate national level meeting is required to effectively address the structure of the various sections of the act and the need for necessary amendments in them.
· Training of the taxonomists is required to improve their skills.
· Five thousand conservation fellowships can be given to people/communities through National Biodiversity Authority in various states to promote the conservation.
· It should be obligatory for the companies that are utilizing the biological resources to reveal whether they have obtained the biological material in a sustainable manner and also the source.
· Involvement of forest officials to be encouraged in National Biodiversity Authority.
· A committee to be constituted, comprising the members from IARI, ZSI, BSI and FSI to list the plant/animal used that are not endangered.
· Private collections of butterflies, or carnivorous plants maintained by individuals need to be conserved.
· Basic science research need not require permission under the act.
SRISTI Meet
A consultative meeting was organized on 8th February in Junagadh attended by the SRISTI Board members, local innovators, and traditional knowledge holders. The aim of the meeting was to democratize the Honey Bee Network and make it more accessible to all. It was also an effort towards preparing new leadership. The idea was to explore and develop a governance structure without the involvement of founders like Prof Gupta. The knowledge holders, farmers and members associated with SRISTI strongly felt that they needed to strengthen the movement locally. Other key suggestions were: a) There should be more participation of the knowledge holders in policy making; b) Almost everybody suggested that the knowledge holders and the founder members should work together. There was no need of separating the founder members from the Movement; c) There should be more participation of innovators, herbal healers and farmers in decision making; d) Local people can be asked to help in the scouting and dissemination of knowledge; e) The local members of SRISTI can help in starting Prayogwadi (a place for experimentation), and preparing the Village Knowledge Register; f) The formula for benefit sharing in herbal products sold by SRISTI innovations was discussed and elaborated; g) Old SRISTI members who had earlier helped in scouting the active members and knowledge holders, can market SRISTI products from a common centre or SRISTI Service Centre. Such members will be called SRISTI mitra; h) The members suggested preparing catalogues based on crops and livestock innovations and the experience of herbal healers and volunteers. Such catalogues will help in locating and reaching out to the experts for help at grassroots level; and i) Some grassroots innovators suggested that their mechanical workshops can be considered as an incubator to provide local technical help to other innovators.
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee 20(1); 21, 2009 |
