Most countries in Asia, including India, are lagging behind the biodiversity targets to be achieved by 2020. A study by researchers from Oxford and Cambridge Universities, published in the December issue of the research journal Nature, claimed that only 40 percent of 40 countries in Asia have achieved the target of making 17 percent of their total land-protected forest area by 2020. . This study is important in the context of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP-15) going to be held in Montreal, Canada. At the conference, representatives of governments around the world will review the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.
To combat the global biodiversity crisis, at the 2010 United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), 200 countries pledged to preserve a minimum of 17% of their land as forests by 2020, which can be increased by 2030. To reach 30%. A total of 20 targets were fixed in the CBD. According to the study, Asia had the worst performance among all the continents. Here only 13.2% of the land has been declared as a protected area by 2020 as against the global average of 15.2%.
According to the study, from 2010 to 2020, India has been able to declare only 6 percent of its land as a protected forest area. The country currently has a total of 990 protected forest areas, which include 106 national parks, 565 wildlife sanctuaries, 100 conservation reserves, and 219 community reserves. Of the 40 countries in Asia studied, 24 are far behind the Aichi targets, 11 have achieved them, while 16 have achieved them.
Qatar did wonders
Protected forest land in Qatar was just 2.4% in 2010, which increased to 29.3% in 2020. Bahrain was disappointed the most during the 10 years. In 2010, the protected forest land here was more than 15%, which has come down to 6.6% in 2020. Kuwait has lost 1.7% of forest cover, Myanmar 0.5%, and Thailand 0.1%, while Yemen and Syria are at the bottom of the list with zero protected forest land. Among Asian countries, Bhutan tops the list with 50% protected forest land. Cambodia is in second place with 39.7%. Japan, Qatar, Sri Lanka, and Israel will also soon achieve the 30% target, while Cambodia and Bhutan have already passed the target.
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