Biodiversity

Forwarded to the portal by : Pranab J Patar

Earthwatch Institute is an international environmental organization that engages people in scientific field research and education to promote the understanding and action necessary for a sustainable environment

Temple Fish Sanctuaries: Last bastions of native fish and pristine river stretches

Organizer: North East Centre for Environmental Education and Research (NECEER)

Venue: New Delhi

Topics:

• Floristic and faunal studies
• Human-Wildlife Conflict

The Indian Ocean extends over 30 per cent of the global ocean area and is rimmed by 36 littoral and 11 hinterland nations sustaining about 30 per cent of the world’s population. The landlocked character of the ocean along its northern boundary and the resultant seasonally reversing wind and sea surface circulation patterns are features unique to the Indian Ocean.

In the backdrop of the essential need for maintaining a healthy forest resource, the valid concern for its continued depletion and degradation, and, being aware of the close association between people and forests, the Forest Department (Government of Jammu and Kashmir), has recently adopted a Forest Policy.

The Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification of 1991 has been replaced recently in January 2011 by the latest CRZ notification of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).

The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India (GOI) had been asked to identify ESAs along the Western Ghats, and to suggest how to manage them. The concept of ESAs has been extensively discussed in the literature. Several ESAs have been set up in India over the last 22 years under the Environment Protection Act, 1986, and a GOI committee under the chairmanship of Pranob Sen has proposed certain criteria for identification of ESAs.

This website by the Yale University provides information on the global and countrywise ratings for environmental performance in the form of Environmental Performance Indices (EPI) for different countries. The site also provides details of EPI scores for India in comparison with the average scores globally.

This index was developed from the Pilot Environmental Performance Index, first published in 2002, and designed to supplement the environmental targets set forth in the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_Performance_Index)

One of the main reasons cited for inadequate representation of biodiversity is a lack of readily available information on the status and distribution of inland water taxa.

In response to this need for information, the IUCN Species Programme, in collaboration with Zoo Outreach Organisation (ZOO) conducted the Eastern Himalaya Freshwater Biodiversity Assessment, a review of the global conservation status of 1,073 freshwater species belonging to three taxonomic groups – fishes (520 taxa), molluscs (186 taxa), and odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) (367 taxa). 

Other groups that include freshwater species that have been comprehensively assessed are freshwater crabs (assessed in 2008, and 57 species of crab are present within the assessment region), mammals, birds, and amphibians and their assessments can be accessed on the IUCN Red List.