The first State Biodiversity Congress to be held under the aegis of the Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSBB) will have various sessions, including a consultative workshop, a meet of Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs), and children’s biodiversity congress, during the three-day programme at Government Brennen College, Thalassery, beginning January 26.
Announcing this at a press meet here on Saturday, KSBB chairman S.C. Joshi said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan would formally inaugurate the congress at 10 a.m. on January 27. He said the event was being organised to protect the State’s biodiversity, create public awareness of its significance, and promoting sustainable use of biodiversity resources. A biodiversity exhibition would also be held.
The theme of the congress is ‘Climate change and revival of biodiversity’.
Classes by experts
The KSBB chairman said there would be conservation classes by experts during the programme. Though 1,034 statutory BMCs had been constituted at local body levels after the formation of the board, their functioning had not been very effective because of their lack of administrative powers.
Conservation practices
That lacuna had been solved now. “Now the BMCs have the authority to ask for funds,” he said. The model BMC scheme initiated by the board helped the BMCs adopt the best conservation practices, he added.
KSBB member K.V. Govindan said that representatives of 56 model BMCs in the State would attend the BMC meet on the second day of the congress. State-level contests would be organised as part of the children’s science congress on the concluding day. The participants in the children’s congress would include winners in project presentation competitions at the district-level biodiversity congress.
The focus of the three-day programme was to equip local bodies and the BMCs to implement local level action plans for protecting biodiversity against the backdrop of massive floods that the State had witnessed in August.
