National Biodiversity Mission

The Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, Innovation, Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) oversees the National Biodiversity Mission.

• The mission aims to push biodiversity and conservation issues to the forefront of scientific, policy, and societal discussions in India.
• The mission is involved in a wide range of activities, including restoring biodiversity in various habitats, developing early-warning systems for zoonotic diseases , and addressing knowledge gaps in biodiversity, among other things.
• The mission is designed to help achieve conservation and sustainable development goals in a variety of ways.
• The NMBHWB's activities are not limited to specific geographical areas or protected regions.
• The Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, the Department of Biotechnology, and the Department of Science and Technology are the main partners for this mission.
  • The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the GOI catalogs and supports the mission.
  • The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change hosts the mission.
  • The National Biodiversity Authority is the Nodal Agency.
• The mission is designed to be inclusive, involving scientists, farmers, policymakers, students, industrialists, and more.
• The mission will engage government agencies, NGOs, and scientific institutions at national, state, and local levels.
• The mission is significant because biodiversity science is currently a fragmented and neglected field in India.

National Biodiversity Mission Objectives

The National Biodiversity Mission's stated objectives are as follows:

1. To assess the status of India’s biodiversity in terms of its distribution and conservation.
2. To develop a professional cadre capable of managing large sets of environmental data for biodiversity management and monitoring.
3. To expand knowledge on ecosystem functioning, which will provide updates on restoration efforts.
4. To enhance options for agricultural production and livelihoods.
5. To develop a dynamic, biodiversity-based sustainable economy anchored by a reliable information system.
6. To engage the public for security and the overall well-being of society.

National Biodiversity Mission Salient Features

The mission aims to transform biodiversity science in India by linking biodiversity with the economic prosperity of people.

• The mission plans to use India's rich biodiversity to find solutions to challenges in climate change, health, and agriculture.
• Governments, NGOs, and other institutions will work together to catalogue, evaluate, map, monitor, and use India's abundant but declining biodiversity in a sustainable manner.
• One of the key features of the mission is the development of a cadre of biodiversity science professionals to help achieve its objectives.
• Another key feature is the mission's effort to enhance citizens' pride in their country's vast natural resources, which will aid in restoring and conserving biodiversity and nature.

Components of National Biodiversity Mission

The National Biodiversity Mission comprises two main components:

First Component

This component, titled NISARG Bharat (National Initiative for Sustained Assessment of Resource Governance), is responsible for documenting, cataloguing, mapping, monitoring, and managing biodiversity for conservation and sustainable utilization of biological resources. This component has three sub-programs.

1. Exploration, Discovery and Genetic Characterization of India’s Biodiversity
2. National Framework for Electronic People’s Biodiversity Registers (e-PBRs)
3. Cataloguing and Mapping Life of India

Second Component

The second major component consists of six programs, each with field-based projects to realize the identified Sustainable Development Goals .

The six programs focus on the following areas:

1. Ecosystem Services
2. Climate Change and Disaster Risk
3. Agriculture
4. Health
5. Bioeconomy
6. Capacity Building and Outreach

Significance of National Biodiversity Mission

The National Biodiversity Mission will enable India to emerge as a leader in demonstrating the linkages between the conservation of natural resources and biodiversity and the well-being of people. This is particularly significant considering that India, with just 2.3% of the global land area, is home to about 8% of the world's biodiversity.

• The NMBHWB will help strengthen the science of restoration, conservation, and sustainable utilization of natural resources.
• The mission could potentially help India enhance its natural assets by crores of rupees.
• The mission will significantly help India meet its national commitments towards international conservation protocols and treaties such as:
  • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
  • United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD)
  • Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora & Fauna (CITES)
  • Convention on Migratory Species
  • World Heritage Convention
• The proposed work on environmental DNA and barcoding in the mission will aid India’s participation in the Earth BioGenome Project.
• The implementation of the programs in the mission will help mitigate the impact of climate change and other natural disasters such as floods, pandemics, etc.
• The mission can help revitalize India’s agricultural sector by increasing rural incomes from biodiversity-based agriculture and generating employment in restoration and nature tourism.
• Restoration of degraded land can also generate employment opportunities for many.
• Various programs under the mission will help find nature-based or green solutions to pressing problems such as degradation of soil, land, forests, rivers, etc.