Biodiversity or biological diversity is wealth of any nation to be conserved, used , exchanged and future crops which are resilient to climate change are to be evolved.
The most unique feature of earth is the existence of life is its diversity. Approximately 9 million types of plants, animals and fungi inhabit the earth along with 9 billions of people.
In 1992 , at the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro Brazil, the vast majority of the world's nations declared that human actions are dismantling the Earth's ecosystems, eliminating genes, species and biological traits at an alarming rate. Increasing concern about dwindling biological resources led to the establishment of the Convention on Biological Diversity(CBD) in 1992.
In India measures for conservation and sustainable uses of biodiversity did not start with CBD. India has a long history of conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. The Biological Diversity Act-2002 was enacted to adopt the objectives enshrined in the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) was established in 2003 to implement India’s Biodiversity Act. India has a very rich reservoir of horticultural crops-fruits, vegetables, spices, medicinal and aromatic plants, plantation crops, tubers, bamboos and mushrooms.
A series BIODIVERSITY OF HORTICULTURAL CROPS now in Vol.VII was edited and published (www.astralint.com).The ICAR-NBPGR has the mandate to collect, document, describe, conserve and make available to users the genetic resources of plants.
Likewise ICAR National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources and ICAT National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources are established.
Dr. Kuruppacharil V. Peter