333.9516095487 P04 (CES) KARNATAKA STATE BIODIVERSITY STRATEGY AND ACTION PLAN (KBSAP) (As a part of National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan - NBSAP) Madhav Gadgil In collaboration with Achar K. P., Ameen Ahmed, Amit Agarwal, Chandrashekariah H. N, Chengappa, Chennesh T. S., O. J. Colaso, Darshan Shankar, C. D. Dyavaiah, Geetha Gadagkar, B. V., Guru Prasad T. V., Harish Bhat, Jayaram, Kushalappa C. G., Murthy T. V. N., Prathima, Prema Iyer, Rahaman M. F., Ravi Ralph, S.G. Neginhal, Sathyanarayan Bhat, Shyam Bhat, Sivan V. V., Sridhar.S, Srikantaiah G. N., Srinidhi S., Subash Chandran M. D., Subramanian K. A., Swaminath M. H., Utthappa, Yatiraju C., Yogesh Gokhale ENVIS Technical Report No. 15 Environmental Information System (ENVIS) Centre for Ecological Sciences Indian Institute of Science Bangalore 560 012 Email: [email protected]; [email protected] Web: http://www.ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/envis December 2004 1 Contents 1. Background and Introduction……………………………………………………………3 2. Strategy and Action Plan………………………………………………………………7-34 3. Methodology……………………………………………………………………………35-38 4. Process details…………………………………………………………………………….39 5. Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………40 6. Annexure: A Correspondence…………………………………………………………41-45 7. Annexure: B Steering Committee …………………………………………………….46-48 8. Annexure: C Working Groups ………………………………………………………..49-50 9. Annexure: D Minutes of Workshops…………………………………………………51-68 10. Annexure: E School Biodiversity Register Programme……………………………69-111 11. Annexure: F Newspaper Articles……………………………………………………112-123 12. Annexure: G All India Radio Programme…………………………………………124-126 13. Annexure: H All India Radio Programme Listnership survey summary ………127 14. Annexure: I Commissioned Papers…………………………………………………128-272 15. Annexure: J Case Studies…………………………………………………………273-415 16. Annexure: K List of Participants…………………………………………………416 17. Annexure: L List of Organizations contributing to the Programme……………417 2 1. Background and Introduction The Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science was invited to serve as the nodal agency at the Karnataka state level for the formulation of a strategy and an action plan to conserve, sustainably use and promote equitable sharing in benefits from the use of biological diversity resources as a part of the national effort co-ordinated by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, GOI. The nodal agency worked under the overall guidance of a Steering Committee chaired by the Chief Secretary of the Government of Karnataka. The Karnataka effort attempted to generate perspectives, ideas and concrete suggestions for practical actions from a broad cross-section of Karnataka's society through a four-pronged approach. This involved (a) commissioning of papers from technical experts and administrators, (b) sponsoring of case studies by NGOs (c) organization of field studies involving local community members with the help of 43 High Schools distributed throughout the state, and (d) obtaining feedback from general public to background articles published in newspapers and the 14 episode All India Radio programme. Since biodiversity covers a vast canvas, we identified six themes encompassing its different facets to derive inputs in a more focussed manner. These six themes included: (a) Protected areas (b) Medicinal plants (c) Freshwater fishes (d) Wetlands (e) Cultural traditions of conservation, and (f) Land races of cultivated plants. All the inputs thus generated fed into six state level thematic workshops in Kannada involving representatives from all segments of the society. The workshop deliberations culminated in drafting of the state level strategy and action plan, which was placed before a state-wide convention on November 11, 2001. Further details of the methodology thus employed are provided in Sections 3 and 4 and the Annexures. 3 2. KARNATAKA STATE BIODIVERSITY STRATEGY AND ACTION PLAN KEY CONCERNS • Need to focus not just on flagship species, but the entire spectrum of biodiversity: It is necessary to move beyond the traditional focus of conservation activities on species such as tiger and elephants to the entire diversity of microorganisms, plants and animals. We would then need to attend to communities such as those of Myristica swamps in Western Ghats. Such hotspots that are rare and unique are critically endangered due to anthropogenic pressure resulting in the loss of species. Such areas need to be closed from any human activities. • Need to focus on protected areas which are important repositories of biodiversity: Fire is a major threat to the forests and bio-diversity conservation, the habitat protection and management of critical hot spots needs to be strengthened to reduce the fire damage to the bio-diversity • Connectivity of Protected areas. The protected areas are highly fragmented causing genetic isolation or organisms leading to genetic disjunction, therefore it is essential to develop protected areas corridors to connect the fragmented eco-systems or habitats • Need to go beyond Protected Areas, to the entire landscape and waterscape: At present the conservation initiatives are confined to flagship species resulting in the loss of associated species in a given habitat. Therefore the strategy should be develop bio-diversity management plans and strategies at the landscape and habitat level to maximize the conservation benefits. While the landscapes having rich bio-diversity of both plants and animals species need to be conserved through intensive conservation efforts, it is not possible to declare all of them as sanctuaries or national parks. Instead they may be declared as Ecologically Sensitive Areas. 4 • Need to focus on neglected eco-regions: The conservation efforts have so far tended to focus on the forested tracts of the Western Ghats. It is necessary to also look at the environmental needs of drier Deccan Plateau areas, especially in the black cotton soil tract, to the agro-ecosystems and the livelihood concerns of the farmers. • Need to devise a variety of policy instruments, over and beyond regulatory measures. The Major threat to Forest Bio-diversity conservation including plants and animals comes from the anthropogenic pressure. Indiscriminate use of forests resources by the community in meeting their livelihood is a major concern which needs to be addressed in a holistic manner. The alternatives to the livelihood needs are to be developed and made available to the community in order to reduce the pressure on the bio-resources At present the policies governing protected areas are inadequate and lack a focus on eco-development and participatory approach. Therefore the protected areas management should be subjected participatory management regulations. The present policy of protected area management does not address man- animal conflict adequately. The existing provisions do not compensate the people adequately and immediately, hence mechanisms need to be developed to address the issue in a holistic manner. • Need to ensure that biodiversity focussed efforts contribute to the enhancement of quality of life of the broader masses of people: Especially including women and the weaker segments of the population – through empowerment; participation in planning, implementation and monitoring; through social recognition; through promoting sustainable livelihoods, through economic incentives. Many of the bio- diversity resources are commonly used by the local people especially the poor people, therefore the strategy should be to improve the productivity of bio-resources and to develop sustainable use practices to encourage the local use of the bio-resources. • Need to combine conservation and sustainable use approaches: Many of the plants and animals species are having very high commercial value in the international market. Some of the rare medicinal plants are indiscriminately harvested and exported clandestinely. Therefore the bio-diversity conservation strategy should address the issue of banning the commercial uses of some of the rare species. 5 • Need to ensure cross-sectoral co-ordination: Grazing is one of the major threats to the bio-diversity as the regeneration is completely affected by continuous grazing by the cattle. Among the cattle the goats are regarded as biggest threat to the regeneration forests, therefore the bio-diversity conservation needs to be linked to the cattle management policy. • Need to mainstream biodiversity concerns in the developmental process: Mining activity and the quarrying in and around the forest is causing irreparable damage to the bio-diversity. Therefore the bio-diversity strategy and action plan needs to address these problems with proper policy support. At the same time, it is essential to keep in mind such developmental imperatives as the urgency to step up agricultural productivity. • Need to operationalize the “ Precautionary Principle”: This principle suggests that while dealing with novel situations, such as the use of GMOs, we would not have available full evidence of their likely impacts. Under such circumstances, it is appropriate to err on the side of the caution. However, we must also look at all the available evidence, including that from other parts of the world, and keep in mind the imperatives of enhancing productivity. • Need to operationalize the “ Polluter Pays Principle”: Costs of biodiversity conservation should be charged to those responsible for its destruction through a variety of impacts such as pollution. • Need to deal with newly emerging challenges