Inclusive Conservation Initiative (ICI)
Recently ‘Global Environment Facility (GEF)’ and Conservation International have released report on ‘Inclusive Conservation Initiatives’ (ICI).
Key points of report:
- Indigenous peoples account for 40% of the terrestrial protected area and 37% of the ecologically intact land area.
- Land management by indigenous peoples has equal or greater success in reducing deforestation than government efforts.
- Less than 1% of climate change mitigation and adaptation funding goes to Indigenous and local communities (IPLC).
- In the COP-26 of UNFCCC held in the year 2021, a funding of US$ 1.7 billion was resolved for IPLC. Only 7 percent of this has reached the IPLC directly.
Inclusive Conservation Initiative (ICI)
It was supported by GEF in 2022. Its objective is to support high biodiversity landscapes, marine landscapes and territorial areas and non-replaceable ecosystems to ensure and enhance their management by IPLC.
Four major components:
- local action to deliver environmental benefits on a global scale,
- Capacity Building of Global IPLC,
- IPLC’s leadership in international environmental policy, and
- Inclusive conservation knowledge for action.
Other initiatives for inclusive conservation:
The Global Biodiversity Framework Fund proposed by the GEF has been established.
Initiatives of India:
- The Community Reserve has been established and the Sacred Grove has been recognized under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 2002.
- The forest rights of the forest dwellers have been recognized under the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
- Conservation International is a non-profit organization based in Virginia, USA. It works to protect nature.
- It has laid down some stringent criteria for conferring the status of Biodiversity Hotspot.
Global Environment Facility (GEF):
- It was established at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, with its headquarters in Washington, D.C. (in the United States).
- It is a financial mechanism dedicated to combating biodiversity loss, climate change, pollution and the adverse effects on the health of land and oceans.
- It serves as the financial mechanism for 5 conventions – the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UNFCCC, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the Minamata Convention on Mercury.
- At present it has 185 member countries, and India is also a member of it.
Source – Down To Earth
