Biodiversity: Nature Protects if She is Protected

More comments from India COP XI. Aditi Agrawal, member of Young Ambassadors Society, writes about her experience.

India hosted the XI Conference of Parties- Convention on Biological Diversity at Hyderabad from the 1st to the 19th October 2012.

Biodiversity is the foundation of life on Earth. It is crucial to the survival of all ecosystems, life forms, and micro-organisms on our planet. It is an interdependent, closely interlinked life system that binds all life on Earth together in a delicate and intricate web where each strand plays a crucial role and depends upon the other for survival. The loss of even one strand causes a ripple effect, endangering life on Earth.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was adopted at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Among the plethora of a few hundred international treaties, the CBD stands apart as the one convention that is at the heart of human well-being. The Convention has near universal membership with 193 countries as Parties.

The Hyderabad COP-11 conference saw an approximate representation of 15,000 delegates from these nations. The meetings focussed on the need for balancing economic development, demographic pressures, and environmental conservation- a reality faced by several countries across the globe. The COP-11 also highlighted the need for adequate prioritization of resources for the better management of biological resources. The conference provided a unique platform to display, promote, interact, learn and network from each other’s experiences and knowledge relating to biodiversity governance.


The global event had a lot to offer to conservation practitioners and enthusiasts like: Biodiversity Pylon, Over 150 exhibitions, Over 300 parallel discussions, City and Biodiversity meet, Parliamentarian’s meet/ High level segment, Environment Education & Sustainable Development meet, Biodiversity “Haat”, Boat show, Cultural show, Go4BioDiv (Youth and Biodiversity), Daily Biodiversity pledges, CEPA fair, Rio Convention Pavilion and so on.



Pictures: Aditi Agrawal