The Kochi Corporation and International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, South Asia, will soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding to implement the German-aided project for conservation of biodiversity.
A special meeting of the corporation council held here on Monday approved the proposal, and appointed the Centre for Heritage, Environment and Development of the local body as the nodal agency for taking the project forward.
The project — Integrated sub-national action for biodiversity: supporting national biodiversity strategy and action plans through the mainstreaming of biodiversity objectives across city-regions — is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety.
The MoU is to ‘formulate a local biodiversity strategy action plan for the city and carry out pilot implementation of a project on ecosystem services’ over a period of four years.
The project will aim to ‘mainstream biodiversity management in urban planning to ensure sustainable development and prepare local biodiversity strategy action plan in a participatory and transparent manner’
The development of a local biodiversity strategy action plan for the city, and ecosystem-based assessments are some of the project objectives.
The citizens of Kochi will benefit “through better management of biodiversity and ecosystem services in their city. The Kochi Municipal Corporation and the relevant officials and professionals will also benefit through the development of their capacity to prepare local biodiversity strategy action plans for their city,” said the project documents.
The civic administration will form a core team, the Stakeholder Committee for Urban Biodiversity, consisting of officials from the local government, research and private organisations, and NGOs for the project.
The Stakeholder Committee will have a say on “development planning, energy use, pollution, waste, food security, water security, public health, local economic development, infrastructure, and transportation, along with representatives from research organisations,” it has been specified.
The Committee will be responsible for organising stakeholder consultations, and preparing local biodiversity strategic action plan.
