Conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of its components and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources would be among the focus areas of the 11th Conference of the Parties, CoP-11, to the Convention on Biodiversity. The conference will be held between the 1st and 19th of next month in Hyderabad. Addressing a news conference in New Delhi today, Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarjan said, as a host nation and Chair, India would try to mobilize funds to achieve Aichi biodiversity targets adopted during the 10th CoP held in Japan in October 2010. Twenty targets were fixed to be achieved by 2020 under this arrangement adopted at Aichi, Japan.

AIR Correspondent reports, the Aichi biodiversity targets are that at least 17 per cent of terrestrial and inland water and 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas are conserved by 2020. The targets also include that by the same year, the rate of loss of all natural habitats, including forests is halved.

The Minister said, India would press more countries to ratify the Nagoya protocol and convince the United States to come into its fold. The protocol is a supplementary agreement providing a transparent legal framework for the effective implementation of the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The outcome of the high level segment, which will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on the 16th of October, will be in the form of Chair’s summary statement by the Environment Minister.