In Hyderabad, a Focus on the World\'s Shrinking Biodiversity

October 11, 2012, 9:29 am

By BETWA SHARMA

HYDERABAD - If it's Thursday, it must be Tree Diversity Day â€" at least for the nature lovers milling about the ballroom of a massive conference center in Hyderabad, home of the 11-day United Nations Conference on Biodiversity.

About 8,000 tree species, approximately 10 percent of the Earth's total, is threatened with extinction. The Tree Diversity Day, organized by the World Agroforestry Center based in Nairobi, brought together experts to discuss ways of preventing these losses.

During one such discussion, M.S. Swaminathan, often called the father of the Green Revolution in India, stressed the need to create “biohappiness” to stop biodiversity degradation. To explain his point, Dr. Swaminathan spoke of largely poor people living along the most biodiversity-rich parts of the Great Rift Valley in Africa. “Bio-resources need to create jobs and livelihoods,” he said. “This will create prosperity between man and nature.”

Dr. Swaminathan's idea is one of many being explored in the halls of the United Nations meeting, which is held every two years. It started on Monday and will continue until Oct. 19.

Participants from 192 countries have gathered to confront the challenge of saving the world's biodiversity, which is disappearing faster than ever before. Attendees include government delegates, civil society representatives, scientists, environmentalists, activists and members of communities most vulnerable to the consequences of the changes in nature.

The biggest obstacle for government negotiators is to drum up funds to implement the Aichi Targets to curb biodiversity loss. These 20 targets, set in Nagoya, Japan, in 2010, have deadlines of 2015 and 2020. But presently there is no clear agreement on how much money is needed or where it will come from.

While government delegations pore over technical matters, the nongovernmental organizations and civil society groups have kept up the conference's momentum by organizing events on a range of issues to save the planet.

For instance, the near-extinction of vultures has been a hot topic here. The flesh-eating birds in South Asia have experienced a 99 percent decline in a period of 15 years, one of the fastest losses of any species.

Scientists attribute the sharp drop to the presence of the veterinary drug diclofenac in cattle carcasses. Though banned in India, Pakistan and Nepal, the drug continues to be sold illegally.

Vulture activists warn that millions of tons of flesh, which used to be eaten by the scavenger birds, pose a threat to human health in the region. The rotting meat contaminates water sources. The number of feral dogs, whose bite can cause rabies, is also rising because of an abundant source of food near slaughterhouses in cities.

This year, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan signed a joint agreement to save the region's vultures. “The vulture project shows the capacity of different governments, N.G.O.'s and multilateral agencies to cooperate for a common cause,” said Javed Jabbar, regional vice president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Mr. Jabbar, also a prominent Pakistani politician and filmmaker, proposed building a 62-mile safe zone for vultures at the southern tip of the Tharparkar district in Sindh, Pakistan, which borders India. “Although it is a hyper-sensitive security area, there must be cooperation especially among border officials,” said Mr. Jabbar. “The recent improvement in Pak-India relations can be used to create this safe zone.”

The conference is also seeing disagreements over the methods of conservat ion being proposed by governments. Many small-scale fishermen, for instance, are furious about marine conservation plans.

Vivienne Solís, a biologist from Costa Rica, who works on livelihood issues in rural Central America, strongly recommended that conservation must have a human rights approach. “Otherwise, instead being a positive act, it will cause a serious problem,” she said.

Bonabeding, a 46-year-old fishing boat captain from Indonesia, who goes by one name, has come to Hyderabad to protest against Aichi Target11, which requires 10 percent of the world's coastal and marine areas to become protected areas by 2020.

The inhabitants of Mr. Bonabeding's village in the East Nusa Tenggara province have hunted big fish like whales and sharks in the Sawu Sea from the 13th century. The villagers, who call themselves “owners of the sea,” only hunt from May to October. Tradition requires the meat to be shared with all the orphans and widows in the villag e.

“We have fished for hundreds of years, but the number of whales didn't decrease,” said Mr. Bonabeding. “We still use old weapons like harpoons. The problem is because of big mechanized boats that use modern technology that kill so many.”

Mr. Bonabeding, whose wife is expecting, carries a sonogram of the baby in his address book. “If a boy, he will be a boat captain like me,” he said. “We are called lamafas.”