Team of scientists conduct study to help India meet the 30x30 biodiversity conservation targets

The study said that a large proportion of landscapes of extremely high importance for nature and human well-being fall outside the bounds of current Protected Areas

A team of scientists across academia, research, policy and conservation NGOs have conducted a prioritisation analysis to help India meet the 30x30 biodiversity conservation targets. The 30x30 biodiversity conservation refers to conserving biodiversity on 30% of the planet by the year 2030.

In the analysis, scientists and conservation practitioners from 15 Indian and international institutions — including the city-based National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) and Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) — explored how a landscape-based approach can be used to safeguard nature in a future-thinking India.

The authors of the study, which was published in the international journal Nature Sustainability, used Spatial Prioritization Analysis incorporating 34 attributes encompassing important ecosystems, water- and carbon-related ecosystem services, and diversity of threatened species, together with 11 categories of human-induced threats.

They said that their results are stark: a large proportion of landscapes of extremely high importance for nature and human well-being fall outside the bounds of current Protected Areas.

“Ours is perhaps the first-ever nationwide assessment that integrates various aspects related to nature, and importantly, nature’s direct benefits to humans (ecosystem services) to guide biodiversity conservation. The landscapes we deem to be of high importance cover ~850,000 sq. km area across the country. We need ways to share spaces with biodiversity through new approaches that go beyond Protected Areas,” said Arjun Srivathsa, DST INSPIRE Fellow, NCBS and the lead author of the study.

Jagdish Krishnaswamy, from IIHS and co-author of the study, said that across India, 338 districts are key for biodiversity and ecosystem services, and of these, 169 districts currently have optimal levels of both biodiversity and ecosystem services.

“Maintaining these areas emerges as an important national goal. In 169 other districts, investment in ecological restoration or healing of land and water ecosystems will be required. We have to reimagine conservation across the entire continuum from semi-wild to mega-cities, using well-planned land-sharing approaches that generate jobs and livelihoods with a healthy dose of land-sparing for very sensitive species and ecosystems,” said Mr. Krishnaswamy.