Call for positive action to conserve biodiversity

KOCHI: The Western Ghats have “some remarkably good areas of natural vegetation containing a high number of plant and animal species,” said R. Wendy Strahm, an International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) expert assessing the region for the World Heritage List of UNESCO .

An IUCN team comprising Ms. Strahm and Brian Furze had been visiting some of the 39 serial sites of the Western Ghats which were nominated by India for the World Heritage List. They were in Kerala as part of the evaluation tour l recently

Referring to the biodiversity threats in the Western Ghats, Ms. Strahm said in an e-mail interview that “in any World Heritage nomination evaluation, it is inevitable that the nominated site will have positive as well as negative aspects.” “Our planet is such that sadly no pristine areas still exist, although World Heritage inscription is really about identifying which sites are the best of the best,” she said.

The participatory forest management system in Kerala won the appreciation of the visiting team as Ms. Strahm noted that the team was “very pleased with the visit to Kerala and particularly impressed with the participatory management that the Forestry Department is undertaking with local communities.”

Biodiversity threat

Biodiversity is always threatened in one way or another in the world and positive action from all stakeholders is required to reduce it in all possible manners and it is important to conserve the best areas that remain in the world, she said.

“Overall, the hope is that the world status would serve as an umbrella to recognise and conserve the most important places on earth. There is no automatic mechanism for this and conflicts do not just disappear because of the label. However, the listing does constitute a strong and high-level governmental commitment for conservation which is not only of national but international significance,” she said.

Ms. Strahm said most of the areas proposed in the nomination occur in protected areas either as national parks, tiger reserves, wildlife sanctuaries or reserved forests. It is understood that hydel or mining projects are expressly prohibited by the law in these sites, she said.

Evaluation process

The field evaluation undertaken by the visiting team was “one fundamental component of the evaluation process. Experts familiar with the Western Ghats are undertaking a complementary desktop review, and both the evaluation report as well as other reports will be presented to the independent IUCN World Heritage Panel which will digest all information, and decide whether additional information is required,” she said.

The nomination will then go to the World Heritage Committee which would decide on the inscription, considering the advice of IUCN. The visiting team will file its report by mid-November and the second level report would be ready by the last week of the month.

Source: The Hindu, 20-10-2010