Biodiversity

• The rich variety of life forms and their interconnections with each other and the environment is termed Biodiversity.
• Genetic diversity (variety of genes within a species), species diversity (variety of species within a habitat or a region) and ecosystem diversity (variety of species within a habitat or a region).

Importance of Biodiversity

• • Ecosystem services: Species perform some or the other functions (soil formation, reducing pollution) in an ecosystem.
  • Provisioning services: Food, fibre, fuelwood, etc. It is biodiversity that will form the basis of a new sustainable green economy.
  • Regulating services: It is biodiversity that will restore degraded lands and polluted rivers and oceans and sustain agriculture in the face of climate change.
  • Supporting services: Biodiversity helps in pollination, nutrient cycling as well as recycling, GHGs reduction by sequestration.
  • Social and cultural services: Biodiversity provides aesthetic, and recreational pleasure.
  • Food web maintenance: Higher the diversity of an ecosystem, more complex is going to be the food webs.
  • Scientific role: Biodiversity help in scientific research, education and monitoring.

Threats

1. Changes in the climate-Long-term changes in temperature and weather patterns are referred to as climate change.
2. Changes in Habitat- Natural occurrences such as droughts, illnesses, fires, hurricanes, mudslides, volcanoes, earthquakes, small changes in seasonal temperature or precipitation, etc. can cause habitat alteration.
3. Pollution and nutrient loading- When too many nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus, are added to water bodies, they can function as fertilisers and encourage an excessive amount of algae growth.
4. Alien invasive species- Alien species invasion is the decline or extinction of native species brought about by the deliberate or accidental introduction of alien species.
5. Overexploitation- When a renewable resource is harvested to the point of diminishing returns, it is referred to as overexploitation. Overexploitation that continues could eventually cause the resource to disappear.

Impact of loss of Biodiversity - Damaged ecosystems exacerbate climate change, undermine food security and put people and communities at risk.

The Biological Diversity Act, 2002

• It was enacted to preserve the biological diversity in India, and provides mechanism for equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of traditional biological resources and knowledge. It is helpful in conservation of flora and fauna as:
• There are provisions for setting up National Biodiversity Authority, State Biodiversity Board, and Biodiversity Management Committee for proper management of biological resources.
• It aims to respect and protect knowledge of local communities traditional knowledge related to biodiversity.
• It secures sharing of benefits with local people as they are conservers of biological resources and holders of knowledge and information relating to the use of biological resources.
• It also has provisions for notifying heritage sites by State Government in consultation with local body which will ensure better preservation.

Road ahead

• Civil society must play a critical role in sustaining biodiversity.
• A paradigm shift in the care of biodiversity.
• For example, the main custodian of the natural world in India is the Indian Forest Service.
• Therefore, a multifunctional landscapes approach, with the direct participation of local communities is the need of the hour.

Some best practices from India

• The Forest Rights Act 2006: It calls for an increase in the stake of indigenous groups in ownership as well as management of biodiversity. However, the Act largely remains on paper.
• National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Wellbeing: It is a proposed mission (India’s Biodiversity Collaborative based in Bengaluru, conceptualised the idea) to have all citizens engaged in the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

It is time to decentralise the management of biodiversity by bringing together multiple stakeholders, especially local communities, through gram sabhas and biodiversity management committees.