Biodiversity resources are humanity’s common lifeline — Nepal PM

Kathmandu, Oct 1 (IANS): Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Thursday stressed the need to strike a balance between people’s rights over natural resources and sustained efforts in biodiversity conservation.

While addressing the UN Summit on Biodiversity held on the sidelines of the 75th Session of the UN General Assembly, he dubbed biodiversity resources as humanity’s common lifeline connecting generations and surpassing national boundaries, reports The Himalayan Times.

The premier further said that Nepal has accorded high priority to biodiversity conservation.

Biodiversity protection constitutes a critical component of Nepal’s aspiration of “Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali”, he added.

Oli also underlined the unique mountain ecosystem of Nepal as the source of knowledge to inquisitive scholars, researchers, and scientists.

He also shared the major achievements and success stories of Nepal in biodiversity conservation and underscored the need to harmonize the efforts under multilateral agreements and internationally agreed development frameworks.

In conclusion, Oli called for requisite political will, innovative ideas, and robust action from all stakeholders in biodiversity conservation.

B’desh PM stresses urgent action to conserve biodiversity

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday stressed the need for urgent action to conserve biodiversity and warned that human beings were moving towards ultimate extinction if current actions continue to be unchecked, it was reported on Thursday.

She made the remarks while proposing a four-point action plan to protect the planet and safeguard biodiversity for sustainable development at a UN leaders’ dialogue, reports bdnews24.

“We live in an inter-dependent world where every species on planet earth has a specific role to play in our ecosystem. However, according to the WWF and the Zoological Society of London, the world’s wildlife populations have fallen by an average of 68 per cent just from 1970 to 2016,” she said.

“Bangladesh is heavily dependent on freshwater and freshwater biodiversity is declining at the fastest rate in the world with 85 per cent of global wetlands have already been lost since the Industrial Revolution.”

In her remarks, she reiterated Bangladesh’s commitment to the notion of “urgent action on biodiversity for sustainable development”.

In order to protect the planet, the premier called on world leaders to focus on future sustainability while safeguarding biodiversity by creating greater public awareness through the education system and research as well as by strengthening national legislation and monitoring mechanisms.

The goals of the Paris climate accord must be implemented as it could prove to be “the difference between human extinction and survival”, bdnews24 quoted the Prime Minister as further saying in her address.

“Our Parliament passed Bangladesh Biological Diversity Act 2017 aimed at preserving biodiversity. We have declared more than 5 per cent of the total terrestrial area and about 5 per cent of the marine area as Protected and Ecologically Critical Areas,” she added.