Hyderabad scored 36 out of 92; It scored poorly in recreational and education services for children If this was an exam, the city would have failed miserably.

Greater Hyderabad has scored zero (out of four) in three indicators and one in 12 indicators regarding healthy biodiversity. Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, after releasing the index at the ‘Cities for Life’ summit said, “The city scored 36 out of 92 points considering 23 indicators. The report will be put up for validation.”

With decreasing discharges into the sea, India’s rivers are dying. Reduced outflows have led to untold damage to the fragile ecology and biodiversity of the Indian river systems.

Environment experts attending the 11th Conference of Parties (CoP-11) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity warn that India will lose its mega biodiversity tag if the river systems are not restored immediately.

Ecosystem restoration and relationship between biodiversity and climate change to be discussed

The difficult task of mobilising financial resources for achieving biodiversity targets expeditiously became the running theme at the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), represented by over 170 countries, which began here on Monday. Union Environment and Forests Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, who assumed charge as president of COP-11 for the next two years, set the tone for the meeting and said resource mobilisation was the most important unfinished agenda that was inherited from COP-10.

JAIPUR: As thousands of delegates gather in India for the 11th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Hyderabad, from 8 - 19 October 2012, a new initiative will be unveiled to help countries meet some of their obligations under the legally-binding treaty whilst also reducing poverty.

It will show how the two seemingly disparate worlds of poverty eradication and biodiversity conservation are linked, and its launch comes ahead of the UN's International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October.

The Conference of Parties (COP 11) to the global Biodiversity Convention (CBD) starting here Monday would make the name of its host city a part of yet another call for restoration of natural ecosystem.

Sarath Gidda of CBD secretariat on Saturday said several international organisations are coming together on October 17 to make a ‘Hyderabad Call’, an international appeal asking for concerted efforts to restore the ecosystem worldwide.

The Cabinet has given the green signal of the signing of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) arising from the fair and equitable utilisation of genetic resources and traditional knowledge.

The protocol will also contribute to the twin objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity relating to the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources especially since India accounts for 7-8 per cent of the recorded species of the world.

The city is two-thirds of a point away from reaching the pinnacle of biodiversity conservation. On a scale of 92, the level of biodiversity management in Greater Hyderabad is 30.

Only 5 countries have ratified Nagoya Protocol on biodiversity so far

The eleventh Conference of Parties (COP 11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to be held here next month is likely to lay emphasis on resource mobilisation for execution of the 10-year ‘Strategic Plan’ adopted at the tenth summit held in Nagoya of Japan in October 2010 CBD is an international treaty for the conservation of biodiversity. With 193 Parties, the convention has near universal participation among countries.

Developed by the city-based Directorate of Oilseeds Research, BT (Bacillus thuringiensis), a bio-pesticide, will be showcased at the CoP-11 biodiversity conference, it was informed.

BT extract is used to kill pests such as pod borer, castor semi-looper and other insects that affect the rice crop, castor and pigeon pea and other oil seeds. Instead of transgenic crops, which give rise to serious apprehensions on bio-safety, scientists say the BT extract bio-pesticide is a safer alternative.

Contractors have to upload pictures of the spot on Internet

Mangalore City Corporation will soon adopt a technology to monitor on-line whether its contractors have cleared solid waste from cement bins and metal containers in the city daily, according to the Commissioner of the corporation Harish Kumar K. People will be able to see the work of contractors by logging on to a website, he told The Hindu .