Wednesday, May 23, 2012

India planning NREGA like schemes to advance agenda of biodiversity: Farooqi



Chennai:
India is planning shelves of schemes that are consistent with objectives of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and advances the agenda of biodiversity and livelihood, according to Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) additional Secretary M F Farooqui.

Addressing a press conference along with executive secretary of Secretariat to the Convention on Biological Diversity Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias after the inaugural session of Celebrations of The International Day For Biological Diversity here on Tuesday, he said NREGA is only piece of law which guarantees green jobs and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has written to a number of ministries looking for a framework similar to that which can help push the biodiversity agenda through their schemes.

Farooqi said India had already signed Nagoya protocol on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilization (ABS) to the convention on biological diversity and the ratification will be done before 11th meeting of Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

He said the 11th meeting of Conference of Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Hyderabad on October, the first in the decade of biodiversity, will not only focus on coastal and marine biodiversity but would also highlight on mobilization of resources.

Interestingly, Dias raised the funding concerns following the financial crisis. “We failed to reach agreement on real commitment on funding due to financial crisis,” he said. Farooqi said India and the United Kingdom have jointly set up a high level panel which would undertake a study to find out what is the global requirement for meeting the strategic plan targets worldwide. “The first report would be released during the COP.”

Farooqi also said a special train to create awareness on biodiversity would be flagged off in Safdarjung in Delhi on June 5 and it is expected to generate 1 million footfalls across the country

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