PM pledges $50million for biodiversity conservation

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Nitin Sethi TNN

Hyderabad: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday announced a $50 million grant for biodiversity conservation in India and other developing countries under the ‘Hyderabad Pledge’ while launching the high level segment of the UN Convention on Biodiversity meeting.
The announcement came on a day environment and forests minister Jayanthi Natarajan called a closed-door meeting of select countries to break the logjam on lack of commitment from developed countries to fund the conservation targets decided under the convention.
On Monday, talks on mobilizing money had to be suspended, with Japan and Canada playing the main spoilers. Sources in the negotiations told TOI that the developed countries continued to insist that a detailed baseline be prepared for how much funds already existed and how much more was required before they pledged any of their own for an international effort to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss. Speaking at a side event, Natarajan said: “A huge financial gap exists to manage biodiversity-related issues.”
The PM’s speech caught attention with his specific reference to rights of farmers to free use of seeds and iteration of the Forest Rights Act. “Indian farmers have always believed in the free use of seeds. The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights’ Act of India confers intellectual property to farmers through registration of seed varieties,” he said.