World Environment Day "EMPOWER IAS"

Context:

On this World Environment Day (June 5), with the novel coronavirus pandemic raging across our vast country, we must reflect on the ways to rebuild our relationship with nature.

The World Environment Day is observed on the 5^th of June every year for encouraging worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment.
The day has been celebrated since 1974 by engaging governments, businesses, celebrities and citizens to focus their efforts on a pressing environmental issue.
India will be focusing on the Nagar Van (Urban Forests) in addition to the official theme of the World Environment Day.
Further, the Indian Navy has also marked the day through various initiatives which are intended to reduce its environmental footprint.

India’s biodiversity

India is home to nearly 8% of global biodiversity on just 2.3% of global land area. It contains sections of four of the 36 global biodiversity hotspots.
The varied ecosystems across land, rivers, and oceans, feed our people, enhance public health security, and shield us from environmental disasters.
Ecological value: Estimates suggest our forests alone may yield services worth more than a trillion rupees per year. This will more with grasslands, wetlands, freshwater, and marine added.
Our biodiversity also serves as a perpetual source of spiritual enrichment, intimately linked to our physical and mental well-being.

Concerns:

Biodiversity loss: India is facing one of the worst public health crises but also worldwide declines in biodiversity.
Globally, we have lost 7% intact forests since 2000, and recent assessments indicate that over a million species might be lost forever during the next several decades.
Climate change and infectious diseases: Climate change and the ongoing pandemic will put additional stresses on our natural ecosystems.
Mitigating climate change can curtail future outbreaks of infectious diseases that can bring unimaginable misery.
The dysfunctional relationship between humanity and nature: The emergence of infectious diseases exposed the lack of food and nutritional security; rural unemployment; and climate change.

Govt. initiatives:

National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Well-Being (NMBHWB): In 2018, the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) in consultation with the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change and other Ministries approved an ambitious National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Well-Being (NMBHWB).

Objectives: The Mission will

strengthen the science of restoring, conserving, and sustainably utilising India’s natural heritage;
embed biodiversity as a key consideration in all developmental programmes, particularly in agriculture, ecosystem services, health, bio-economy, and climate change mitigation;
establish a citizen and policy-oriented biodiversity information system; and
enhance capacity across all sectors for the realisation of India’s national biodiversity targets and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
allow India) to emerge as a leader in demonstrating linkage between conservation of natural assets and societal well-being.

Significance:

CBD and SDG fulfillments: The Mission will help India meet its commitments under the new framework for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and UN SDGs related to pressing social issues including poverty alleviation, justice and equity, and protection of life.
Nature-based solutions to numerous environmental challenges, including degradation of rivers, forests, and soils, and ongoing threats from climate change, with the goal of creating climate-resilient communities.
Increase biodiversity: The Mission’s comprehensive efforts will empower India to restore, and even increase, our natural assets by millions of crores of rupees.
Climate change mitigation: Mitigation programmes will lessen the impacts of climate change and other natural disasters, such as pandemics and floods.
Generating rural income: We can rejuvenate agricultural production systems and increase rural incomes from biodiversity-based agriculture while also creating millions of green jobs in restoration and nature tourism.
Land restoration: Restoration activities across India’s degraded lands, which amount to almost a third of our land area, alone could generate several million jobs.

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