Request to invite applications for the Third India Biodiversity Awards

You will be happy to know that the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and UNDP together have announced the Third India Biodiversity Awards 2016. The Call for Applications was announced by Shri. Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, on 26, August, 2015 at MoEFCC.

Through this mail, we request you to kindly share the announcement through your networks to enable maximum outreach and representation of stakeholders for the Awards.

The First India Biodiversity Awards were jointly announced by the Ministry and UNDP India in 2012 at the high level segment of the Eleventh meeting of Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, during India’s Presidency of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. It is an innovative mechanism to recognize and honour outstanding models of biodiversity conservation at the grassroots level.

Following its success, the Second India Biodiversity Awards were announced in May, 2014, at the International Day for Biological Diversity. Over 300 good cases of biodiversity governance have been gathered from these two rounds, some of which have been captured in a publication ‘India, Naturally!’ and in a documentary film.

This year, on the request of MoEFCC, UNDP along with the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), revisited and modified the categories of the India Biodiversity Awards to align them with the provisions of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, in order to incentivise stakeholders in the conservation of biodiversity and the effective implementation of the Act.

The four categories of the India Biodiversity Awards 2016 are:

1. Conservation of threatened species (both wild and domesticated)
2. Sustainable use of biological resources
3. Successful mechanisms/ models for access and benefit sharing
4. Biodiversity Management Committees

Winners and runners-up stand a chance to win ₹1,00,000 and ₹50,000, respectively!

Please find the link to the India Biodiversity Awards Call for Applications webpage.

Please note that the deadline for receiving applications is 24 October, 2015.

Also, find attached the India Biodiversity Awards brochure released by the honourable Minister.

Yours sincerely,
Auro Shashwat

UNV – Natural Resource Management Associate
Strengthening Natural Resource Management Project
UNDP India
55, Lodi Estate New Delhi-110 003, India
Tel: +91 (11) 46532-250
Mobile: +91-9810209198
Fax: +91 (11) 24627612
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