India Releases Four Biodiversity Papers at CBD COP-17

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav released four Indian publications on biodiversity at the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP-17) to the Convention on Biological Diversity, held in Yerevan, Armenia. The release took place at a side event organised by his ministry together with India's National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and was titled From Policy to Practice: Advancing India's Biodiversity Commitments through Innovation, Finance, ABS and OECMs.

The four publications

• Guidelines for the Designation of India's Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (I-OECMs) 2026, which allow conservation outside formal protected areas to be recognised if criteria and governance tests are met
• The 5th National Report on the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, India's periodic account of how it governs the safe handling of living modified organisms
• The Convention on Biological Diversity Handbook: Reference Guide and Indian Perspective, a plain reference to a treaty process that has grown complicated
• India's ABS Success Story, a volume on India's record in Access and Benefit Sharing

What the minister argued

Yadav's theme was implementation. Referring to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, he said a country's duty does not end with adopting targets: it must also build capacity and raise the money to meet them. Progress, he added, should be judged by benefits actually delivered and conservation that lasts, not by announcements, funds mobilised or area identified. He linked biodiversity to people's lives, knowledge and livelihoods, said protection and development must strengthen each other, and invoked the principle of LiFE, or Lifestyle for Environment, for responsible consumption.

On Access and Benefit Sharing, he pointed to the Nagoya Protocol as the basis for sharing the gains from the use of genetic resources fairly, and urged that the principle be turned into transparent and workable procedures. No country, he said, can meet the Global Biodiversity Framework's aims alone, and he welcomed cooperation that respects national priorities and widens access to finance and technology, including South-South learning.

Who else was present

The event was attended by Hambardzum Matevosyan, President of CBD COP-17 and Armenia's Minister of Environment, and by Dr Taukondjo Shikongo, who heads the Access and Benefit-sharing unit of the CBD Secretariat. Both praised India's work on conservation and benefit sharing.