Partha Sarathi Das
The great Indian philosopher, Chanakya, remarked over two thousand years ago…….”Small drops of water, when they come together, fill up a pot”. Similarly, knowledge, good deeds or wealth, add up gradually. This is a message for us. By itself, each drop of water may not seem much. But when it comes together with many other such drops, it makes an impact. Similarly, a good deed for the planet may seem insignificant. But when billions across do it together, the impact is huge. Likewise, if billions of individuals make the right decisions for our planet, it will be the key for winning any battle for our planet. This is the core principle of “Mission LIFE”(Life-Style for Environment). This core principle for behavioral change had ignited in mind of our visionary Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi Ji and in October, 2022, the UN Secretary General formally launched this Mission LIFE. The preamble to the outcome document of COP-27 also speaks about sustainable life style and consumption. And it is wonderful to see that experts in Biodiversity Conservation and climate change arena have also adopted this core “Mantra”.
In the last few decades, Governments and people across the world have made efforts to conserve biodiversity. To this effect, in India, according to the Wildlife Protection Act (1972), national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, conservation reserves and community reserves are earmarked as “Protected Areas”. A 2006 estimate by the Ministry of Environment and Forests put the number of Indian Citizens dependent on forests for their lives and livelihoods between 200 to 400 million, spread across about 1,73,000 villages. A 2009 report noted 657 protected areas across the country covering a total of close to 5% of the land. It is estimated that about 2 to 4 million people dwell in the protected areas and directly or indirectly depended on them for their livelihoods.
Triggered by the definition of protected areas, conservation efforts have traditionally focused on protecting the forests, sometimes with the strict separation of forests and people, which is called “Forest Conservation”. This conservation approach affected their sustenance and livelihoods. This approach considers forests as pools of capital and resources and it fails to acknowledge that forests are an area of co-existence of various species including humans.
In contrary, experts in Biodiversity Conservation have adopted a long term people-centric approach by integrating community and scientific knowledge for preserving biodiversity. It is also highlighted that the biodiversity conservation needs to be socially relevant for it to be acceptable to mass people especially indigenous dwellers. With the imminent threat of climate change and the pressure of economic development, the biodiversity conservation efforts must take into account, concerns of equity and social justice.
The menace of climate change cannot be mitigated from conference tables alone. It has to be fought from the international forum to everybody’s home. When an idea percolates from discussion tables to dining tables, it becomes a mass movement. Making every family and every individual aware that their choices and life styles can help to minimize the effects of climate change. Mission LIFE is about democratizing the battle against climate change. When people become conscious that simple acts in their lives are powerful, there will be a very positive impact on the environment.
The people of India have done a lot in the last few years in creating mass movements and behavior transformation for combating the menace of climate change and other environmental catastrophies. People-driven efforts have led to massive cleanliness drives for ensuring public places are free of litter.
Under mission LiFE , our country has made tremendous progress in many domains such as: making local bodies environment friendly, saving water through micro-irrigation (Per Drop More Crop), saving energy by switching over to LED bulbs, reducing waste and e-waste, adopting to healthy life styles, adoption of natural farming, promotion of millets. Global initiatives and adequate financing by the World Bank have an important role to play in encouraging countries across the world to adopt Mission LiFE and other behavioral transformations. These initiatives will promote sustainable living by encouraging individuals to make changes in their life styles and emphasizes responsible conscious use of resources to safeguard and conserve the environment.
The catastrophic impact of climate change has almost reached its zenith and it is imperative to act now even as a conscious individual we can limit carbon outputs, a vital key to any solution to deal with climate crisis, cut back on fossil fuel use by driving and flying less and try to include as much as renewable energy in heating and lighting buildings as possible. Food choice is another important aspect to combat climate crisis. Minimising animal products and buying organic food often has a low carbon footprint because no synthetic fertilizers and pesticides were used.
Besides lowering carbon footprints, we may adopt to nature based climate solutions which involve actions that protect and enhance nature to help ecosystems and a broad diversity of creatures to adapt to a changing climate. These solutions can help to mitigate climate change by increasing the capture and long term storage of carbon in plants and in the soil. They can range from simply protecting as much as natural landscape as possible to restoring and enhancing ecosystems such as forests, but also on farms, along roadsides and in towns and cities. The benefits of implementing nature based climate solutions are significant.
In addition to supporting wildlife, recent research suggests that natural climate solutions can account for 30 percent of the carbon sequestration needed to limit warming to 2oC by the end of the century.
The great thing about these nature based solutions is that they can be undertaken anywhere by anyone. Of course, the protection and restoration of larger landscapes is going to have big impact, but even making your yard a heaven for wildlife will contribute. By using climate smart native plants, eliminating pesticides, and providing nest sites for bees and host plants for butterflies, one can have a very positive effect.
Wildlife corridors are an important feature of a nature based solution. In the face of changing climate, insects need to move across the landscape to find new nesting and food resources and there is already evidence that butterflies are shifting ranges in response to climate change. Linear habitats, such as field boarders, hedgerows, tree-lined roadways and green lanes can act as corridors for pollinators. Linking of habitat areas by working with neighbors and transport departments to add habitat along roadways brings the benefits of large scale, and help makes it possible for species to move from one place to another as the climate changes.
The added benefit of these nature–based strategies is that one can immediately make a difference for local biodiversity and there is ample of evidence that the more bio-diverse a system is, the better it will handle changes in climate and so this approach offers a win-win situation for one and all in conserving Biodiversity and in combating the menace of climate change.
(The author is an associate professor in Botany at Karimganj College, Assam. The author dedicates this article to offer greetings and compliments to all child scientists and budding talents of Hailakandi district who will be participating in the 31st National Children’s Science Congress-2023 and achieve the pinnacle of glory for Assam.)