India hails global nature of COP15 targets

India’s strong intervention that ecosystem based approaches should be given their due place in all mitigation processes made a significant contribution to the landmark global biodiversity framework agreed upon on Monday, environment minister Bhupender Yadav said.

“The global biodiversity framework sets out to respond to several assessments that provide ample evidence that, despite ongoing efforts, biodiversity is deteriorating worldwide at rates unprecedented in human history,” Yadav said. “This framework outlines an ambitious plan to implement broad-based action to bring about a transformation in our societies’ relationship with biodiversity by 2030 and ensure that, by 2050, the shared vision of living in harmony with nature is fulfilled.”

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The looming threat of a mass extinction of species due to human activities led nearly 200 nations at the United Nations biodiversity summit in Montreal to agree to protect and restore at least 30% of the planet’s land and water by 2030.

“India successfully negotiated that ecosystem based approaches should be given due place in all mitigation processes,” said Yadav, who led the country’s negotiators at the 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

The framework would be an important marker for India to approach biodiversity and help frame policies in several sectors, particularly agriculture, rights of forest dwellers and management of biodiversity hot spots, experts said.

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The framework aims to halt the loss of ecologically important areas by 2030. This could be critical in India, given the mounting pressures of infrastructure development in several parts of the country, particularly in the Himalayas, the Western Ghats and the ecologically sensitive coastal areas.

The target of conserving 30% of land and water area by 2030, also known as 30x30, was particularly contentious during the negotiations. The text of the framework, however, made it clear that the target is global, and not specific to any country. “The most significant contribution of the Indian interventions was that all the targets are kept as global in nature and countries will be free to adopt them as per their circumstances, priorities and capabilities,” Yadav said.

India was supportive of most aims to restore biodiversity at COP15 but had reservations on numerical targets. “If you notice in para 11 (of the framework), its very clear that these are global targets and they do not apply to individual countries,” an official of the environment ministry said, seeking anonymity. “So, India in principle agrees to the framework and is ready to implement it.”

“It is because of India that the point about implementing these targets based on national circumstances has come out clearly and strongly,” a member of the Indian delegation said, declining to be named. “India’s articulation on the need to take an ecosystem based approach, which is more holistic instead of nature-based solutions, was also taken.”

Nature based solutions are actions to protect, sustainably manage and restore natural and modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously benefiting people and nature, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. But several environmental and biodiversity experts are critical of these solutions because they feel the term is vague and can go against the rights of indigenous populations and forest dwellers.

“We now have a global commitment that national, sub-national and local governments are equal partners in reducing biodiversity loss and uphold the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities as custodians of biodiversity,” said Kanchi Kohli, legal researcher at the Centre for Policy Research, a think tank. “The challenge for India is how this can be reconciled with domestic regulations and policies that govern spectrum of economic growth and environment protection. International commitments can help create new benchmarks, but require a follow through within the country.”