Rearing of International Biodiversity Day (22 May) was another reminder of the important role our natural world plays in solving the climate change crisis, which along with biodiversity decline poses a potential threat to our future. Biodiversity, the rich diversity of life forms and their interrelationships with each other and the environment, is everywhere: as ubiquitous microbiomes inside our bodies, in our backyards, villages, towns and cities, and well-organised ecosystems in remote wild places and ecosystems as communities. Maintaining and increasing biodiversity on land and oceans is probably the least expensive mechanism for sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to cool our land and oceans.
Mitigation of climate change is one of the many benefits derived from biodiversity. It also fulfills our basic needs for food, shelter, medicines, mental health, entertainment and spiritual prosperity. In the face of a continuing decline in the quality of our environment, we have to rely more and more on biodiversity or nature, also known as nature-based solutions, to secure our future. It is biodiversity that will restore our degraded lands and polluted rivers and oceans and sustain our agriculture in the face of climate change. It is biodiversity that will form the basis of a new sustainable green economy. And it is biodiversity that will inspire our children to choose a more humane, just and hopeful future, one that gives primacy to the living world.
Despite the importance of biodiversity which ultimately sustains all human endeavour, we have been poor stewards of the care and nurturing of life on Earth. Globally as well as in India, we have failed to adequately protect and manage our precious, irreplaceable natural heritage. Biodiversity is declining around the world, and our last remaining, largely isolated ecosystems are deteriorating due to changes happening around them, such as species loss, climate stress, and continued human pressures.
In India, the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill will further weaken our resolve to maintain the remaining biodiversity.
Nurture and Management of Biodiversity
In many ways, biodiversity is us and we are biodiversity. Thus, civil society should play an important role in maintaining our biodiversity. A change in the care of biodiversity that has been long overdue must begin now, fueled by this International Day for Biodiversity.
Let us first change the way we manage our biodiversity. Currently, the main custodian of the natural world is the Indian Forest Service. But the word “forest” is flawed to describe our vast and unique natural heritage. India’s biodiversity is not only on land but also in water bodies, rivers, deltas and oceans. We have a rich range of ecosystems in the form of grasslands, savannas, alpine pastures, deserts and other types of ecological communities. Even in the 20th century, people started talking about living organisms and the interconnectedness manifested in the form of ecosystems and ecosystem services in multifunctional landscapes dominated by humans. In the 21st century, the original words “wilderness” and “wildlife” have limited meaning or utility.
We must think of multidimensional scenarios, where aspirations, beliefs, traditional knowledge and direct involvement of local communities are at the heart of the notion of creating and sustaining life on Earth. In 2006, policy makers in India enacted the Forest Rights Act, which called for an increase in the share of indigenous groups in the management of biodiversity as well as ownership. Though the Act remains largely on paper, it is yet to be implemented on the ground. Seventeen years later, the time has come to act with steps to fundamentally change the way we manage our biodiversity. If biodiversity is everywhere, as it is, we must incorporate it into our daily work – in every development programme, in every government department, in every public and private institution. And it is time to decentralize the management of biodiversity by bringing together multiple stakeholders, especially local communities, through Gram Sabhas and Biodiversity Management Committees.
Mainstreaming Biodiversity
Mainstreaming biodiversity is the goal of the proposed National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Well-being, an idea this author has referred to in a previous column. India’s leading conservation biologist working under the umbrella of the Bengaluru-based Biodiversity Collaboration conceptualized the idea and developed a road map for the mission, approved in principle by the Prime Minister’s Council for Science, Technology and Innovation.
The mission will enable our country to address critical challenges in climate change, natural and regenerative agriculture, and ecosystem and public health by harnessing biodiversity and ecosystem services – commonly referred to as nature-based solutions. The ultimate goal is to enhance and conserve biodiversity to promote human well-being; More specifically, to meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals related to poverty alleviation, nutrition and health, and environmental protection, and to support the era of the new green economy.
People will be at the heart of the mission, which aims to involve all citizens in the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, to generate curiosity and consideration of biodiversity in every development-oriented program in the public and private sectors. Inculcate a sense of responsibility to protect nature and biodiversity – and our future – in every child and every student. Taking such a pledge would be a fitting celebration of our precious and irreplaceable natural world.
Kamal Bawa is the President Emeritus of the Bengaluru-based Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) and coordinator of the Biodiversity Collaboration. Views expressed are personal