India Updates National Biodiversity Strategy And Action Plan, Here's How It Will Conserve 30 Per Cent Area By 2030

India has introduced an updated biodiversity action plan aimed at conserving at least 30 per cent of its land, freshwater, and marine areas by 2030, aligning with global biodiversity goals.

The revised National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP), presented at the 16th UN Biodiversity Conference in Cali, Colombia, includes 23 national targets.

They correspond to the 23 global targets under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF), which was established during the 15th UN Biodiversity Conference in Canada in 2022.

India’s biodiversity strategy is organised around three main themes:

1. Reducing Threats to Biodiversity: This theme includes eight targets focusing on major biodiversity threats, such as land and sea use changes, pollution, overuse of species, climate change, and invasive species, as well as restoring ecosystems, conserving species diversity, and enabling the sustainable use of wild species.

2. Meeting People’s Needs Through Sustainable Use and Benefit Sharing: Comprising five targets, this theme supports the sustainable management of agriculture, fisheries, forests, and animal husbandry, which are vital to the livelihoods of rural populations, including farmers, herders, fishers, and indigenous communities.

   Targets also address sustainable use of wild species, ecosystem service management, equitable access to green spaces, fair sharing of biodiversity benefits, and public support for conservation.

3. Tools and Solutions for Implementation: The final theme includes 10 targets focused on incorporating biodiversity into development objectives, encouraging sustainable production and consumption, reducing waste, repurposing subsidies, fostering skills and knowledge-sharing, mobilising resources, and ensuring inclusive and fair planning in biodiversity conservation.

India’s National Biodiversity Target 3 seeks to increase Protected Areas and Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs) to encompass 30 percent of its landscapes, highlighting the role of local communities in sustainable conservation.

Meanwhile, National Biodiversity Target 2 sets a goal to restore 30 percent of degraded terrestrial, freshwater, coastal, and marine ecosystems by 2030. Target 16 addresses reducing overconsumption and waste to combat biodiversity loss.

A background

A core objective of the KM-GBF is to conserve at least 30 per cent of the planet's terrestrial and oceanic areas by 2030, alongside restoring degraded ecosystems, such as forests, rivers, and wetlands, to ensure essential resources like clean water and air remain available.

According to the revised NBSAP, India invested around Rs 32,200 crore in biodiversity protection from 2017-2018 to 2021-2022, and annual spending through 2029-2030 is projected to reach Rs 81,664.88 crore.

The NBSAP emphasises that extensive ecosystem degradation, driven by agricultural expansion, industrialisation, infrastructure development, mining, and urbanisation since independence, has undermined the ecosystem services these areas previously provided, making restoration a high priority.

India’s Mission LiFE initiative encourages the adoption of sustainable lifestyles. The Convention on Biological Diversity, adopted in 1992, mandates that countries develop NBSAPs as essential tools for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use. Countries must also submit progress reports every four years to assess their efforts.