World Biodiversity Day

World Biodiversity Day

Subject: Environment

Section: Biodiversity

Context: “Building a shared future for all life” is the theme of International Day for Biological Diversity for 2022. The theme was chosen to continue developing momentum and support the post-2020 global biodiversity framework at the forthcoming UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15).

Concept:

• According to the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services released in 2019 by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the main global drivers of biodiversity loss are climate change, invasive species, over-exploitation of natural resources, pollution and urbanisation.

Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem (IPBES)

• It is an intergovernmental organization established to improve the interface between science and policy on issues of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
• The IPBES was established by the United Nations, but functions independently.
• Formation: 2012.
• Headquarters: Bonn, Germany.

Ecosystem Services

Provisioning Services:

Water, food, wood and other goods are some of the material benefits people obtain from ecosystems called ´provisioning services´

Supporting Services

Providing living spaces for plants or animals and maintaining a diversity of plants and animals, are ‘supporting services’ and the basis of all ecosystems and their services.

Regulating services

Maintaining the quality of air and soil, providing flood and disease control, or pollinating crops are some of the ‘regulating services’ provided by ecosystems. They are often invisible and therefore mostly taken for granted. When they are damaged, the resulting losses can be substantial and difficult to restore.

Cultural services

The non-material benefits people obtain from ecosystems are called ‘cultural services’. They include aesthetic inspiration, cultural identity, sense of home, and spiritual experience related to the natural environment

• Because of our collective excesses, the ecological carrying capacity of planet earth has largely been exceeded.

Carrying capacity can be defined as a species’ average population size in a particular habitat. The species population size is limited by environmental factors like adequate food, shelter, water, and mates. If these needs are not met, the population will decrease until the resource rebounds.

• One of the best mechanisms that has been created to redress this condition is the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, created in 1971 by MAP programme UNESCO.

MAB programme :

It is an intergovernmental scientific programme that aims to establish a scientific basis for enhancing the relationship between people and their environments. It combines the natural and social sciences with a view to improving human livelihoods and safeguarding natural and managed ecosystems, thus promoting innovative approaches to economic development that are socially and culturally appropriate and environmentally sustainable.

The World Network of Biosphere Reserves currently counts 727 sites in 131 countries all over the world, including 22 transboundary sites.

Biosphere Reserves:

• Biosphere reserves are places where humans live in harmony with nature, and where there is an effective combination of sustainable development and nature conservation.
• In South Asia, over 30 biosphere reserves have been established. The first one was the Hurulu Biosphere Reserve in Sri Lanka, which was designated in 1977. In India, the first biosphere reserve was designated by UNESCO in 2000 within the blue mountains of the Nilgiris (States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala). The network now counts 12 sites, with Panna, in the State of Madhya Pradesh, as the latest included in 2020.
• All Biosphere Reserves have developed science-based management plans, where local solutions for sustainable human living and nature conservation are being tested and best practices applied.
• All biosphere reserves are internationally recognised sites on land, at the coast, or in the oceans. Governments alone decide which areas to nominate. Before approval by UNESCO, the sites are externally examined. If approved, they will be managed based on an agreed plan, reinforced by routine checks to ensure credibility, but all remain under the sovereignty of their national government.
• The priority countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal are on the priority list of UNESCO, because they do not yet have any biosphere reserves.

Biosphere Reserve:

• Biosphere Reserve (BR) is a designation by UNESCO for representative parts of natural and cultural landscapes extending over large areas of terrestrial or coastal/marine ecosystems or a combination of both.
• Biosphere Reserves tries to balance economic and social development and maintenance of associated cultural values along with the preservation of nature.
• It has three-part structure:

1. Core areas: It is most protected area of a biosphere reserve and free from human interference. It may contain endemic plants and animals.
2. Buffer Zone: It is around the core areas and help in the protection of core areas. Some activities like restoration, limited tourism, fishing, grazing, research and educational activities etc. are allowed.
3. Transition zone: It is the zone of cooperation where human activities and conservation are done in harmony (Ex- settlements, croplands, managed forests and areas for intensive recreation and other economic uses etc. are done)

• There is total 18 Biosphere reserves in India.
• There is total 11 biosphere reserves of India which have been recognized internationally under Man and Biosphere Reserve program:

1. Nilgiri
2. Gulf of Mannar
3. Sunderban
4. Nanda Devi
5. Nokrek
6. Pachmarhi
7. Similipal
8. Achanakmar – Amarkantak
9. Great Nicobar
10. Agasthyamala
11. Khangchendzonga (Added in 2018)