The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India has partnered with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in a global project on Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN).BIOFIN was initiated ten years ago at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP-11 held at Hyderabad, by UNDP andthe European Commission, in response to the urgent global need to divert more finance from all possible sources toward the implementation of global and national biodiversity goals, and related targets and commitments.
The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) is the technical agency to support in the implementation of the BIOFIN in India. At present in 40 countries, BIOFIN is working with governments, civil-society, vulnerable communities, and the private sector to catalyse investments in nature that not only protect biodiversity, but let it flourish. BIOFIN’s National teams are currently working to develop Biodiversity Finance Plans – roadmaps towards a more sustainable future.
Telangana State is known for its rich heritage of agro-biodiversity and the Telangana State Biodiversity Board (TSBB) has made concerted efforts towards furthering the agenda of biodiversity conservation in the State. The TSBB has an active presence in the State and is a perfect partner to leverage outreach in the public and private sectors to implement BIOFIN Finance Solutions on "Mainstreaming Biodiversity in Public Finance (Agriculture Sector)", "Access and Benefit Sharing" and "Corporate
Social Responsibility" with a view to prepare a resource mobilization strategy to implement the Telangana State Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.
The project launch and implementation activities will now begin with the signing of Letter of Agreement by the UNDP and the TSBB in the presence of Dr. Rajat Kumar, IAS Chairman, TSBB & Special Chief Secretary, Government of Telangana, Shri. C. Achalender Reddy, IFS (Retd.), Chairperson, NBA, Shri. M. RaghunandanRoa, IAS, Secretary, Agriculture, and Sri.Suneel Padale, Senior Project Officer, UNDP. This is a unique effort post the adoption of Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF), and in collaboration with UNDP, the State of Telangana would be the first State in the Country to prepare such a state-level biodiversity action plan incorporating a resource mobilization strategy.
