Initiatives for Biodiversity Conservation

Published on 04 Apr 2025

Government Initiatives for Biodiversity Conservation

• Protected Areas

• National Parks: It is declared to safeguard, enhance, or develop wildlife and its natural habitat. Neither rights nor livestock grazing permissions are granted in a National Park.

• Example: 106 existing national parks in India, covering an area of 44,372.42 km2

• Sanctuary: It is a region of sufficient ecological, zoological, floral, faunal, or geomorphological value. Certain rights of people living inside the Sanctuary are permitted.

• Example: Around 564 existing wildlife sanctuaries in India

• Conservation Reserves: State governments can declare conservation reserves in any territory that is next to national parks and sanctuaries and connect one Protected Area to another.

• Example: Around 100 conservation reserves in India

• Community Reserves: The state Government establish Community Reserves on any private or community land that is not part of a National Park, Sanctuary, or Conservation Reserve and where an individual or a community has volunteered to conserve this area.

• Example: Around 219 existing community reserves in India

• Species-specific conservation initiatives

• Project Elephant: It is a centrally sponsored scheme and was launched in 1992 for the protection of elephants, their habitats and corridors.

• Project Tiger: A centrally sponsored scheme to ensure the survival of India's tiger population for scientific, economic, cultural, and aesthetic reasons.

• Project Dolphin: It entails enhancing patrols and surveillance, eliminating ghost nets, restoring coastal ecosystems to improve habitat, and providing incentives to residents to become involved.

• Afforestation and Restoration Program

• National Afforestation Program: It aims to support and accelerate the ongoing process of devolving forest conservation, protection, management and development.

• National Mission for a Green India: It aims at improving the quality of the forest and increasing forest cover besides cross-sectoral activities on a landscape basis.

• Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority: It promotes afforestation and regeneration activities as a way of compensating for forest land diverted to non-forest uses.

• Legal and Policy Frameworks

• Wildlife Protection Act 1972: The act allows for the establishment of Protected Areas to safeguard wildlife, as well as the imposition of punishments for hunting certain species listed in schedules I to IV.

• Biological Diversity Act 2002: It aims to conserve biodiversity, promote sustainable use of biological resources, regulate access to genetic resources and traditional knowledge, and ensure fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilization.

• Environment Protection Act 1986: The objective of providing for the protection of the environment. It empowers the Central Government to establish authorities charged with the mandate of preventing environmental pollution in all its forms.

• Forest Conservation Act 1980: It embodies the firm commitment of the Government of India to balance the conservation of forests with the sustainable development needs of the country.

Historic Citizen Movements to Conserve Biodiversity

The environmental movements are conceived as broad networks of people and organizations engaged in collective action in the pursuit of environmental benefits.

• Within India

• Chipko Movement (India): As part of a grassroots campaign, residents, mainly women embraced trees to stop them from being cut down in Uttarakhand. 

• Narmada Bachao Aandolan: It is an Indian social movement spearheaded by native tribals, farmers, environmentalists and human rights activists against several large dam projects across the Narmada River.

• Bishnoi Movement: It was among the first groups to formally support green living, wildlife preservation, and environmental conservation.

• Save Silent Valley movement: It was an anti-state movement to save the evergreen tropical forest known as Silent Valley, which is in Kerala.

• International Movements

• Save the Bees: Citizens throughout the world have actively participated in bee-saving campaigns, realizing the importance of pollination and ecosystem health.

• Butterfly Conservation: A UK-wide nonprofit environmentalist organization and charity dedicated to the conservation of butterflies, moths, and the environment.

• Green Belt Movement: It focuses on tree planting, environmental conservation, and women's rights in Kenya.

• Rhino Conservation Volunteers: In South Africa, citizen volunteers participate in rhino conservation efforts through anti-poaching patrols, monitoring rhino populations etc.

International Initiatives for Biodiversity Conservation

• UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

• Conserve biological diversity

• Fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources

• Sustainable use of the components of biodiversity

• Cartagena Protocol

• To implement a regime for biosafety using modern biotechnology

• Protect biodiversity from the risks emerging from the LMOs made from the use of modern technology

• Nagoya Protocol: Help conserve and sustainable use of biodiversity

• Man, and Biosphere Programme: It is an intergovernmental scientific programme that aims to establish a scientific foundation for improving people's relationships with their environments.

• Identify and assess the changes in the biosphere

• Study the interrelationships between ecosystems and socio-economic processes

• Ensure basic human welfare and a livable environment

• Promote the exchange and transfer of knowledge

• Bonn Challenge: The Bonn Challenge is a global goal to bring 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested landscapes into restoration by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030.

• United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017–2030

• The Strategic Plan features a set of six Global Forest Goals and 26 associated targets to be reached by 2030, which are voluntary and universal.

• It builds on the vision of the 2030 Agenda and recognizes that real change requires decisive, collective action, within and beyond the UN System.

• It includes a target to increase forest area by 3% worldwide by 2030, signifying an increase of 120 million hectares, an area over twice the size of France.

• Biodiversity Hotspots: Species variation in plants and animals within a specific ecosystem is known as biodiversity. Primarily, species richness and species evenness are the main components of biodiversity.

• Two criteria to qualify as a hotspot

• The region should have at least 1500 species of vascular plants i.e., it should have a high degree of endemism.

• It must contain 30% (or less) of its original habitat, i.e. it must be threatened.

Tags:
Environment

Keywords:
Biodiversity Conservation WPA National parks Sanctuaries

Syllabus:
General Studies Paper 3

Topics:
Biodiversity and Wildlife Conservation