Globally, there are about eight million species, of which more than two million live in the ocean. With the abundance of marine life forms, the dependence on marine resources has increased in the last few decades and this emphasises the need for effective planning and management of the coastal and marine resources, said Inspector General of Forests, Ministry of Environment and Forests, S.K. Khanduri. He was speaking at a two-day international consultative workshop on ‘Across Landscapes: Conserving Coastal and Marine Biodiversity’ jointly organised by MoEF, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) here on Saturday.
According to Dr. Khanduri, the country is not only endowed with a long coastline of 7,500 km, but has an exclusive economic zone of 2.02 million sq km and 4,68,000 sq km of continental shelf. “The ecosystem and biodiversity is rich and varied and this workshop was organised to discuss with all stakeholders various aspects such as marine protected area management initiatives, governance and inter-sectoral coordination, blue carbon - resource and conservation and creating win-win strategies for sustainable growth and resource management.”
In a special presentation Probir Kumar Banerjee of Pondy Can, citizen’s action network, said focus should be given to beach nourishment to arrest soil erosion. According to him, about 30 per cent of the total country’s population live along the coast, and if soil erosion was not arrested, then saline water would enter the fresh groundwater resources and it would affect not only human beings but also agriculture and the ecosystem.
The workshop was attended by a number of high ranking officials from MoEF and UNDP.
