SHWETA KAMAT
shweta@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: In a bid to conserve biodiversity resources that are under stress or threat due to underestimation, Goa State Biodiversity Board (GSBB) is carrying out extensive documentation of the State’s tradable bio-resources including agricultural, forest to marine bio-resources.
GBB through the UNEP-GEF-MoEF-ABS Project is working on ‘Strengthening the Implementation of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and Rules, 2004 with focus on its Access and Benefit Sharing Provision (ABS)’. The project report is expected to be released by Union Minister for Environment and Forest (MoEF) Anil Dave on International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22, to be held in Goa.
Speaking to Herald, GSBB Member Secretary Pradip Sarmokadam said that biodiversity has significant economic value that is implicit and explicit and these values are often not captured by the market. “The potential of biodiversity is often underestimated. Such underestimation is considered as one of the factors for rapid depletion of biodiversity and loss of habitats and species,” he said.
“The project basically aims at conserving bio-resources which are under stress or under threat. Its objective is to achieve biodiversity conservation through implementing access and benefit sharing agreements in the State,” he added.
The valuation of resources are done from the selected ecosystems such as forest, agriculture and wetlands. “Valuation of biodiversity/ecosystem goods is a fundamental step towards determining the real value of bio-resources,” Sarmokadam said.
MoEF and National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), through the UNEP-GEF ABS Project, that began in 2012, is working towards developing an appropriate method/model for valuation of bio-resources for operationalisation of the ABS mechanism in an effective manner.
Staff and technical participants from TSGs Vivekanand Environment Awareness Brigade (VEAB) Keri Sakhali (North Goa District) and Environment Conservation and Research Organization, Pale (South Goa District) along with GSBB experts are involved in documentation of the project.
