New Delhi: The environment ministry will Monday launch the UN decade on biodiversity for Asia and Pacific, an initiative for conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, officials said Saturday.
"With a view to keep up the momentum, the period 2011-2020 has been proclaimed by the UN General Assembly as the UN Decade on Biodiversity. The event provides India with an opportunity to consolidate, scale up and showcase our initiatives and strengths on biodiversity," the ministry said in a statement.
In the last few decades, biodiversity has come under increasing pressure on account of factors such as habitat fragmentation, development imperatives and more recently global warming, it said.
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) secretariat, environment ministers of Asia and Pacific countries will participate in the launch.
India is also hosting the 11th Conference of the Parties (CoP-11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) next year.
IANS
