Reflections of Mr Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias(Executive Secretary of Convention of Biodiversity) on India being a host nation for CBD as shared with Indian youth delegation (Swetha Stothra Bhashyam, N.S. Prasad, Vinay Bandari).

India had passed a Biodiversity Act ten years ago in 2002, which is one of the few countries who has a biodiversity law including Brazil, Australia, Norway and few more The law talks about Access and benefit sharing and has also established the National Biodiversity Authority at Chennai. While we appreciate the work they had done in the past and we would expect them to ratify the Nagoya protocol this year. As the host country India gets the presidency for the next two years. And as it has been done in the past by the various host countries, India also has to take extended leadership and constructive role guiding the world in the field of biodiversity.

 “de-Formalizing CBD” series has reached the stage of having perspectives from the Conservationist herself on the ongoing negotiations. Today we have with us Ms Aban Marker Kabraji, Regional Director (Asia), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Here, the respected conservationist shares insights about South Asian regional co-operation for conserving endangered species and involvement of youth in the efforts to safeguard the ailing flora and fauna.

Kabir Arora (K.A.): Starting with South Asia, we have some nation states that are at political crossroads with each other. At the same time there is a need for collective approach to conservation efforts in this region. How does one float in such troubled waters of our sub-continent?