The Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSBB) has begun steps to galvanise the reconstituted Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) in local self-government institutions (LSGIs) for sensitising them to the urgency of conservation and for accelerating conservation activities envisaged in the Biological Diversity Act.
The BMCs were reconstituted in 2015-16 after the end of tenure of the BMCs constituted for the first time in 2012. The KSBB has started district-level workshops for strengthening the LSGI-level BMCs to equip them to do capacity building in conservation.
The eight-member BMC in each local body includes its president/ chairperson/ Mayor and secretary as committee’s chairperson and secretary respectively and six local body members, including two women, as its members. Workshops have already been held in Wayanad, Kozhikode, Kasaragod and Kannur.
“The foundation of biodiversity conservation is the BMC because conservation is possible in the local level with people’s participation,” KSBB chairman Oommen V. Oommen said. Talking to The Hindu here on the sidelines of a workshop here on Tuesday, he said the board’s mandate is to empower the BMCs and to sensitise them to conservation.
Noting that at present around 10% of the total 1,034 BMCs are sensitised to conservation, Dr. Oommen said the KSBB is telling the BMCs that economic value of the ecosystem services is huge. According to an estimate $33 trillion is the ecosystem service value in the world a year, he added.
The board will urge the LSGIs to evolve their developmental plans based on their People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBR) prepared by the BMCs concerned. The PBRs have been prepared in 90% of the LSGIs, he said adding that over 900 PBRs have already been prepared as the PBR is a mandatory requirement as per the Act.
KSBB member secretary Dinesan Cheruvat said the board wanted the BMCs to underscore the fact that in future sustainable development will be based on biodiversity. Many developmental activities have affected the State’s biodiversity and biodiversity depletion is the source of many instabilities and environmental and human morbidity that the State face today, Dr. Cheruvat observed.
As per the Act the BMC is a major decision-making body in the LSGI as far as conservation is concerned. The BMCs are supposed to invite the local MLAs and MPs concerned at their meetings as also officials from Forest, Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Departments that are in some way concerned with biodiversity. For decision-making, each BMC can seek the input of district-level technical support group of the KSBB.