All provinces have supported the revised draft of National
Biodiversity, Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) aimed at stemming the
loss of biodiversity, restoring the ecosystem and promoting
sustainable use of natural resources for the wellbeing of the present
and the future generations. The revised draft of the plan that
highlights over 20 targets was launched at a workshop, organised by
the Ministry of Climate Change (MOCC) and the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN), at a local hotel, here on Thursday.
Sustainable use of biodiversity is not only a national need but also a
global obligation under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
A biodiversity action plan (BAP) was prepared back in 2000 but its
implementation remained slow due to a weak institutional framework. In
2010, in a global review it was revealed that biodiversity in the
country was continuing to be lost and ecosystems were degrading and
undermining human wellbeing. The Ministry of Climate Change and the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) were the
agencies that brought the key players together in a workshop that
rebooted the national drive to preserve biodiversity. There are now 20
targets that all have been agreed upon and it now remains to be seen
how well or ill the plan is implemented at local levels. The reason
for the failure of the first attempt to preserve the environments that
we all live in was linked to a lack of a clear mechanism of
coordination between the provinces and the federal government —
something that bedevils development across the entire spectrum.
Institutional capacity was weak in respect of biodiversity, and while
natural events can be catastrophic across the range of biodiversity,
much of the damage was the result of human activity. Much as we
welcome this development, there must be fears that it will suffer the
same fate as the previous attempt to preserve the bubble in which we
all live. There are few votes and precious little money in
biodiversity, and the provinces are only on board because it is a
‘neuter’ issue — nonetheless we wish the initiative well.
pk.shafaqna.com
