India’s Updated National Biodiversity Strategy Unveiled at COP 16: A Roadmap to 2030 and Beyond

Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change released India’s updated National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) at the 16th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP 16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The document was released during a special event called ‘Roadmap for achieving the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) targets and release of India’s updated NBSAP’ on 30th October 2024, in Cali, Colombia.

It was stated that the updated NBSAP, aligned with the KMGBF, is a vital roadmap to address the strategies to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, with a longer-term vision of living in harmony with nature by 2050. He highlighted that India had adopted the ‘Whole-of-Government’ and ‘Whole-of-Society’ approach in updating its NBSAP. The Minister further highlighted that the updated NBSAP acknowledges environmental challenges and outlines strategies to address them through ecosystem restoration, species recovery programs, and community-driven conservation efforts focusing on the restoration of degraded ecosystems, the protection of wetlands, and the sustainable management of marine and coastal areas.

India’s governance framework for biodiversity conservation was emphasized and exemplified by the Biological Diversity Act of 2002 and its amendments of 2023. This framework includes a three-tier institutional structure comprising the National Biodiversity Authority, State Biodiversity Boards, and local Biodiversity Management Committees, ensuring effective implementation at all levels. The MoEFCC is the central agency responsible for coordinating biodiversity conservation efforts across India. The NBSAP update was driven by an extensive consultative process led by MoEFCC and involved 23 central ministries, multiple departments, state-level organizations, communities, and other stakeholders. The updated NBSAP aligns with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, setting 23 national biodiversity targets through an extensive consultative process involving diverse stakeholders.

The updated NBSAP emphasizes adopting a transformative approach and focuses on an ecosystem-based management approach, a bottom-up approach for implementation, mainstreaming biodiversity, sectoral integration, and inter-agency cooperation. It also provides insight into the current status of biodiversity across India and trends therein, existing policy and institutional framework, biodiversity expenditure, and potential biodiversity finance solutions.