India launches updated National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan in Colombia

The document was released during a special event called ‘Roadmap for achieving the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) targets and release of India’s updated NBSAP’, in Cali, Colombia.

During the event, Kirti Vardhan Singh stated that the updated NBSAP, aligned with the KMGBF, is a vital roadmap to address the strategies to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, with a longer-term vision of living in harmony with nature by 2050.

He highlighted that India had adopted the ‘Whole-of-Government’ and ‘Whole-of-Society’ approach in updating its NBSAP. The Minister further highlighted that the updated NBSAP acknowledges environmental challenges and outlines strategies to address them through ecosystem restoration, species recovery programmes, and community-driven conservation efforts focusing on the restoration of degraded ecosystems, the protection of wetlands, and the sustainable management of marine and coastal areas.

Special Secretary, MoEFCC, emphasized India’s governance framework for biodiversity conservation, exemplified by the Biological Diversity Act of 2002 and its amendments of 2023. This framework includes a three-tier institutional structure comprising the National Biodiversity Authority, State Biodiversity Boards, and local Biodiversity Management Committees, ensuring effective implementation at all levels.

The MoEFCC serves as the central agency responsible for coordinating biodiversity conservation efforts across India. The NBSAP update was driven by an extensive consultative process, led by MoEFCC and involving 23 central Ministries, multiple Departments, State-level organizations, communities, and other stakeholders.

The updated NBSAP aligns with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, setting 23 national biodiversity targets through an extensive consultative process involving diverse stakeholders. It was further informed that India’s updated National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) had been prepared under the able and constant guidance of Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and Leena Nandan, Secretary, MoEFCC.

The updated NBSAP emphasizes the adoption of a transformative approach and focuses on an ecosystem-based management approach, a bottom-up approach for implementation, mainstreaming biodiversity, sectoral integration, and inter-agency cooperation. It also provides insight into the current status of biodiversity across India and trends therein, existing policy and institutional framework, biodiversity expenditure, and potential biodiversity finance solutions.