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Sahyadri e-news is CES-ENVIS's quarterly newsletter, covering the issues related to Western Ghats biodiversity. Western Ghats is rich in diversity of life. Due to unplanned developmental activities, its ecological resource base is under threat, with extensive destruction of natural habitats, widespread degradation of ecosystems and a growing burden of air and water pollution. Simultaneously, knowledge base of uses of biodiversity is also being eroded, with the present generation becoming increasingly alienated from the natural world. |
We need to carefully plan on conserving, sustainably using and restoring the
biological diversity of the Western Ghats. We also need to conserve and benefit
from the knowledge of uses and the traditions of conservation of this biological
diversity. Also, we must ensure that benefits flowing from our heritage of biodiversity
and related folk knowledge percolate down to the people at the grass-roots.
The Biological Diversity Act, Act 18 of 2003 proposes to decentralize management
of biodiversity to the level of Panchayati Raj institutions, municipalities
and city corporations. In this regard, Biodiversity Information System will
have an important role in supporting the local level Biodiversity Management.
Design and development of an information system requires the collaboration of
people with expertise in a diversity of disciplines, such as taxonomy and ecology,
biotechnology, economics, intellectual property rights and information technology.
In this issue, Prof. Madhav Gadgil outlines the need and design aspects of the
Biodiversity Information System.