Every year Vigilance Awareness Week is celebrated throughout the country, wherein all the stakeholders are encouraged to fight corruption. Wildlife Institute of India (WII) marked the Vigilance Awareness Week 27 October – 1 November 2014 with the taking of a pledge on 27 October 2014 by the Institute’s staff led by Dr. P.K. Mathur, Dean, WII to eradicate corruption and remain vigilant and to work towards the growth and reputation of the Institute. (The text of the Pledge can be read at http://www.cvc.nic.in/vawp27102014.pdf ).

As part of the activities undertaken during the Vigilance Awareness Week, a seminar session on the issue of corruption was held at WII on 28 October 2014 wherein Dr. V.B. Mathur, Director, WII delivered the welcome address and the invited speaker Mrs. Vibha Puri Das, Former Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India delivered the keynote address. Dr. Mathur said that tackling corruption was a formidable task as it operated at multiple levels, assumed various forms – some implicit and some explicit. He said that WII as an academic institution was susceptible to different nuances of corruption, which could manifest in the form of plagiarism. He stressed on the need to develop and practice a ‘Zero tolerance’ towards this. He further noted that to tackle the usual forms of corruption in matters of procurement and recruitment, several concrete steps are being taken at WII. Limiting discretion, enhancing accountability and promoting transparency are well established processes to tackle corruption and all staff at WII must all work together to deal with corruption.

Mrs. Vibha Puri Das noted that India has been a signatory to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) since 9 December 2005 for global cooperation amongst countries in every aspect of the fight against corruption, including prevention, investigation, and the prosecution of offenders. She highlighted key steps and actions undertaken in India in the fight against corruption in all spheres. With the new government at the centre realizing that leveraging of technology in the functioning of organizations can work effectively, the theme of this year’s celebrations has been ‘Combating Corruption – Technology as an Enabler’. The Session concluded with the presentation of a memento to the invited speaker by Dr. P.K. Mathur, Dean, WII and a vote of thanks delivered by Shri Suresh Dalal, Registrar, WII.

Addendum 2014 to National Biodiversity Action Plan (NBAP) 2008

As a Party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that mandates countries to prepare a national biodiversity strategy and action plan for implementing the Convention at the national level, India developed a National Policy and Macro-level Action Strategy on Biodiversity in 1999. Subsequent to the adoption of the National Environment Policy (NEP) in 2006, a National Biodiversity Action Plan (NBAP) was developed through a comprehensive inter-ministerial process in 2008. India’s NBAP is broadly aligned to the global Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. Using the Strategic Plan as a framework, India is among the select countries that have developed National Biodiversity Targets (NBTs) in harmony with the global Aichi Biodiversity Targets. India’s 12 National Biodiversity Targets and the associated indicators and monitoring framework now form an Addendum to the NBAP 2008. This document together with the NBAP 2008 forms the blueprint for biodiversity conservation in the country. The Addendum 2014 also presents important analyses and information on funding for biodiversity conservation in the country. The document highlights the linkages of India’s NBAP and NBTs with CBD’s Programme of Work on Protected Areas (PoWPA) as well as with the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC). The Addendum 2014 to NBAP 2008 reiterates India’s commitment to conservation of biodiversity as a national priority recognising its crucial linkages with the livelihoods and well-being of her people.

The Wildlife Institute of India team comprising Dr. V.B. Mathur, Dr. K. Sivakumar, Dr. Malvika Onial, Dr. C. Ramesh, Mr. Yashaswi Singh, Ms. Biba Jasmine Kaur and Mr. Anant Pande, provided technical support in preparation of the Addendum 2014 to NBAP 2008.

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A Panoramic View of India’s Presidency of CoP to CBD (2012–2014)

Subsequent to the hosting the Eleventh Conference of the Parties (CoP-11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Hyderabad in October 2012, India led the Presidency of CoP for a two-year period up to October 2014. The Presidency of the CoP led to an enhanced focus domestically on strengthening the implementation of biodiversity programmes and stimulated country-wide awareness on biodiversity issues. As a result, a number of activities relating to biodiversity, some of them quite unique, were taken up within as well as outside the government set-up. India has brought out a pictorial document, ‘A Panoramic View of India’s Presidency of CoP to CBD (2012–2014)’ that provides an overview of some of the important activities undertaken during India’s Presidency of CoP. This document was released at CoP-12 in Incheon, Republic of Korea on 13^th October 2014. It provides information on India’s role in steering the CBD agenda through the meetings of the CoP Bureau and the Working Groups; contributions to activities under South-South cooperation; and activities and joint international initiatives with organisations including International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GIZ). This pictorial document also provides details of outreach and awareness activities undertaken throughout the country by Ministries of the Government of India and a number of government and non-government organisations. It highlights some of the recent important conservation success stories such as that of the conservation of the Amur falcon, a migratory bird protected under the Convention on Migratory Species as well as national legislation in India. The document reflects India’s reaffirmation of the resolve to continually make positive and meaningful contributions to the biodiversity agenda at the international level.

The Wildlife Institute of India team comprising Dr. V.B. Mathur, Dr. K. Sivakumar, Dr. Malvika Onial, Dr. C. Ramesh and Mr. Yashaswi Singh, provided technical support in preparation of the document ‘A Panoramic View of India’s Presidency of CoP to CBD (2012–2014)’. 

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Shri Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change opened  (MoEFCC) 21^st meeting of the Governing Board of Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on 16^th September, 2014.

In his welcome address Shri Hem Pande, Additional Secretary, MoEFCC & Head of the Indian Delegation said that he was pleased to note that delegates from over 30 countries and institutions had come for this meeting. He said that MoEFCC was committed to develop the science of biodiversity informatics and make best use of GBIF resources. In his inaugural address to the delegates, Shri Javadekar said “While India has emerged as a global powerhouse of information technology we have not yet made use of the   full potential of biodiversity informatics in policy formulation and decision-making”. However, we stand committed to developing “biodiversity informatics” as an essential element of India’s economic, environment and social well-being. We are in the process of building a comprehensive and decentralized biodiversity information infrastructure to serve the national interests and to provide inter-operability with regional and global initiatives”. He further said that a lot of biodiversity data of Indian origin is with several natural history museums in the world and this valuable legacy data was needed by the Indian researchers. Several ongoing global and regional biodiversity informatics initiatives for sharing this biodiversity data with the countries of origin are gaining momentum. He requested GBIF and its partners to expedite and institutionalize the process of digital exchange of this data.

In a message to the governing board meeting, the executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Braulio Dias emphasized that GBIF’s role was critical to improve the scientific knowledge needed in order to sustain healthy ecosystems.

“I therefore appeal, not only to this forum but also within the CBD constitutency, to recognize the benefits of a viable, active and strong GBIF, primarily to benefit countries in having access to information to guide their own sustainable development agenda,” Mr Dias said.

In his introduction to the three-day meeting in New Delhi, the GBIF Governing Board Chair Peter Schalk said that India had an important role to play in GBIF,  and carried a global responsibility, being the second largest country in the world in human population, and containing a great wealth of biodiversity including 7% of the world’s mammal species, 12% of birds, 6% of reptiles, 5% of amphibians, 11% of fishes, and 6% of the flowering plants of the planet.

 "India has a lot to offer to GBIF and the global biodiversity community in terms of data and biodiversity expertise,” Schalk commented. “In its turn, GBIF offers a good value proposition to India in terms of open data resources, ICT tools and international collaboration.”

In his own opening statement to the meeting, the GBIF Executive Secretary Donald Hobern praised India for developing a National Biodiversity Information Outlook, to provide a roadmap for developing a national infrastructure for biodiversity information.

“We live in an age in which we all increasingly depend on instant access to up-to-date digital information on finances, weather, transport and air quality,” Hobern said. “We have just as much need to be able to track the status of biodiversity and how its patterns change over time.  GBIF at the global level and GBIF nodes at the national level are all working together to create this infrastructure and to support our societies with immediate access to the best available knowledge of natural systems.”

On this occasion ShriPrakashJavedekar, Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change also released 3 Botanical Survey of India publications viz. “Flora of Lower Subansiri District, Arunachal Pradesh State”, “Fascicles of flora of India”  and “VanapatiVani”. He also released 4 Zoological Survey of India publications viz. “Fauna of Achanakmar-Amarkantak Biosphere”, “Freshwater Crabs”, “Gorgonians in Andaman and Nicobar Island” and “Fauna of State of Karnataka”. He also launched the re-engineered websites of the Botanical and Zoological Survey of India.