By The New Indian Express | 03rd June 2013 07:42 AM
The India archipelago of Nicobar Islands, home to around 1,800 animal species and some of the world’s most endangered tribes, has now been declared as a world biosphere reserve. The 103,870-hectare reserve was last week officially declared as protected by the International Coordinating Council of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme. The archipelago is also home to the indigenous Shopmen people, semi-nomadic hunters dwelling inland and the Nicobarese who live in coastal areas and are dependent on fishing and agriculture.
Biosphere reserves are chosen by the MAB programme to experiment with different approaches to manage terrestrial, marine, coastal and freshwater resources. They also serve as in situ laboratories for sustainable development. In India the biospheres of Simplipal (Odisha), Nokrek (Meghalaya), Pachmarhi (Madhya Pradesh), Nilgiri (Tamil Nadu), the Gulf of Mannar (Tamil Nadu), Sunderbans (West Bengal) Nanda Devi (Uttarakhand), and Achanakmar-Amarkantak (MP and Chhattisgarh) are already on UNESCO’s list. The designation is not binding under any law but aimed at building and promoting a network of places where people are attempting to mesh human activity with biological and scenic assets.
Man-made changes to ecosystems are now so alarmingly rapid that human lives and societies face epic challenges. Technological fixes cannot replace the role of robust, complex, and interconnected natural ecosystems in maintaining a biosphere’s favourable conditions. Any viable response to the global environmental crisis must greatly expand the level of protection afforded to wildlife and wild places through conservation. It is imperative to protect all old-growth habitats, as these remnants are ancient repositories of rich and vulnerable biodiversity and optimal arenas for life-sustaining processes.
Source: http://newindianexpress.com/editorials/Preserve-repositories-of-vulnerable-biodiversity/2013/06/03/article1617284.ece?commentId=76816&pageNumber=1#comment-76816
The India archipelago of Nicobar Islands, home to around 1,800 animal species and some of the world’s most endangered tribes, has now been declared as a world biosphere reserve. The 103,870-hectare reserve was last week officially declared as protected by the International Coordinating Council of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme. The archipelago is also home to the indigenous Shopmen people, semi-nomadic hunters dwelling inland and the Nicobarese who live in coastal areas and are dependent on fishing and agriculture.
Biosphere reserves are chosen by the MAB programme to experiment with different approaches to manage terrestrial, marine, coastal and freshwater resources. They also serve as in situ laboratories for sustainable development. In India the biospheres of Simplipal (Odisha), Nokrek (Meghalaya), Pachmarhi (Madhya Pradesh), Nilgiri (Tamil Nadu), the Gulf of Mannar (Tamil Nadu), Sunderbans (West Bengal) Nanda Devi (Uttarakhand), and Achanakmar-Amarkantak (MP and Chhattisgarh) are already on UNESCO’s list. The designation is not binding under any law but aimed at building and promoting a network of places where people are attempting to mesh human activity with biological and scenic assets.
Man-made changes to ecosystems are now so alarmingly rapid that human lives and societies face epic challenges. Technological fixes cannot replace the role of robust, complex, and interconnected natural ecosystems in maintaining a biosphere’s favourable conditions. Any viable response to the global environmental crisis must greatly expand the level of protection afforded to wildlife and wild places through conservation. It is imperative to protect all old-growth habitats, as these remnants are ancient repositories of rich and vulnerable biodiversity and optimal arenas for life-sustaining processes.
Source: http://newindianexpress.com/editorials/Preserve-repositories-of-vulnerable-biodiversity/2013/06/03/article1617284.ece?commentId=76816&pageNumber=1#comment-76816
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