Jammu and Kashmir Biodiversity Council today conducted stakeholders consultation meeting for developing Local Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (LBSAP) for Smart City, Jammu.Pertinently, LBSAP enables the city to build resilience to climate change, mainstream biodiversity conservation into urban planning solutions.
The task of developing LBSAP has been assigned to ICLEI South Asia, a renowned agency engaged by UNDP, who is also supporting preparation of UT level Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan for J&K. The J&K Biodiversity Council has already released the City Biodiversity Index (CBI) for Jammu and Srinagar Smart Cities.
The City Biodiversity Index is an assessment tool for cities to evaluate and monitor the progress of their biodiversity conservation efforts against their own baseline developed during preparation. The information on native biodiversity and ecosystem services provided by the biodiversity and its management by the city administration as given in City Biodiversity Index will be utilized in developing LBSAP.
The J&K Biodiversity Council is also developing LBSAP for Srinagar Smart City and stakeholders consultation meeting has been scheduled to be held on 17th November, 2022. Once developed, these LBSAPs for Jammu and Srinagar cities will be the 6th and 7th in the country.
Speaking on the occasion, Commissioner Secretary, Forests, Ecology & Environment, Sanjeev Verma, laid emphasis on ecological balance and importance of developing a sound strategy and action plan to conserve and preserve the biodiversity of Jammu city. He appreciated the efforts of J&K Biodiversity Council towards conservation of biodiversity of J&K and advised the Council to expedite consultation process for the UT level Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.
Dr. Mohit Gera, PCCF and HoFF, J&K and Chairman, J&K Biodiversity Council, spoke about the initiatives taken up by the council to develop the LBSAP for Jammu and Srinagar cities. He apprised the participants on different aspects of biodiversity of J&K and achievements made by the Council towards constitution of BMCs, development and updation of PBRs as well as conduct of meetings of BMCs in J&K during the recently concluded “Jan Abhiyan: Back to Village” program.
He further apprised that preparation of LBSAP is mandatory as per Biodiversity Act and it is a document similar to National level and State/UT level documents on Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.Asaf Mehmood Sagar, Member Secretary, J&K Biodiversity Council gave background of the Stakeholders Consultation meeting.
The team of ICLEI headed by Dr. Monalisa Sen, Programme Coordinator (Biodiversity), ICLEI South Asia, conducted the Stakeholders Consultation Meeting at Jammu and facilitated the proceedings.The main objective of this meeting was to identify focus areas and prioritize drivers impacting the health of various ecosystems in Jammu and to define goals and key actions for Jammu’s LBSAP besides developing the Vision Statement for LBSAP.
The consultation meeting involved the stakeholders like district administration, Jammu Municipal Corporation, Jammu Smart City Project officials and representatives of line departments such as Forests, Wildlife, Agriculture, Horticulture, Floriculture, Fisheries, Panchayati Raj and Rural Development, Animal and Sheep Husbandry, etc.
The stakeholders meeting was attended by Dr. Neelu Gera, PCCF and Chairperson JKPCC, Roshan Jaggi, PCCF and Director Social Forestry Department, J&K, Suresh Kumar Gupta, PCCF and Chief Wildlife Warden, J&K, B M Sharma, Additional PCCF Jammu, B. Balaji, CCF, Planning and Projects, Jatinder Singh, Director Floriculture, Jammu, Pawan Kumar, Additional Commissioner, Jammu, Kulbushan Khajuria, Joint Commissioner Health and Sanitation JMC, Dr. C M Seth, former IFS, Dr. Navneet Kaur, Founder Chairperson NGO SUPPORT, officers of Forests, Agriculture, Horticulture, Floriculture and Fisheries Departments.