IIMB presents International Workshop on Sustainable Production and Consumption on Nov 17 & 18
Bengaluru: Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) will host the Biodiversity Finance Plan International Workshop on ‘Sustainable Production and Consumption and Novel Economic Instruments for Biodiversity Conservation’, on November 17 and 18 (Friday and Saturday), 2017, at Classroom N001, IIMB.
The workshop is being led by Prof. A Damodaran, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion’s IPR Chair at IIM Bangalore. Prof. Damodaran was a member of the high level panel of the Convention on Biological Diversity on Biodiversity financing strategy that highlighted the importance of the Biodiversity financing initiative that since then taken off in the shape of the global Biofin Project.
Participants in the workshop will include representatives of BIOFIN member countries, international organizations, academics and policy makers dealing with issues relevant to the theme of the workshop. It is envisaged that the deliberations of the workshop would result in providing strategic policy direction for the preparation of an effective Biodiversity Finance Plan.
The five main sessions of the workshop will include: Overview Session: BIOFIN, Novel Economic Instruments and Sustainable Production and Consumption; Current Economic Instruments Utilized in BIOFIN Countries; Landscape or Biome-based Approaches to Biodiversity Conservation – The State of Art; Market Access Instruments to Enhance Sustainable Production and Consumption, and Mainstreaming Development Programmes for Sustainable Production and Consumption.
The workshop will feature international experts such as Dr. Rathin Roy, Member, Economic Advisory Council & Director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), Markus Lehmann, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Montreal, Verena Linneweber, Deputy Country Director, United Nations Development Program, Dr. Sujata Arora, Advisor, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change & National Focal Point, Convention on Biological Diversity, India, Onno van den Heuvel, Manager, Global BIOFIN Programme, Tracey Cumming, UNDP BIOFIN, Dr. B. Meenakumari, Chairperson, National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), India, Dr. Rita Pandey, NIPFP, India, Dr. J Soundrapandi, NBA/UNDP-India, Leila Makhmetova, Legal Expert, Kazakhstan, Muhktar Djumaliev, Adviser of Minister of Economy, Member of PAGE team, Kyrgyzstan, Lira Zholdubaeva, National BIOFIN Coordinator, UNDP, Kyrgyzstan, Dr. Orapan Nabang Chang, Chief Technical Advisor, BIOFIN Thailand, Niran Nirannoot, National BIOFIN Coordinator, United Nations Development Programme, Bangkok, Thailand, Dr. Giridhar Kinhal, Former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, India, Yrsaliev Bakyt, Deputy Director, Forestry Department, State Agency for Environment Protection and Forestry, Kyrgyzstan, Dr. U Sankar, Honorary Professor, Madras School of Economics (MSE), Chennai, Massimiliano Riva, Policy Specialist, Innovative Finance, UNDP, New York, USA, Dr. Shigefumi Okumura, Director, Future Corporation, Japan, Chimed-Ochir Bazarsad, BIOFIN Lead Expert, Mongolia, Dana Mamanova, Tax Policy Specialist , Kazakhstan, Dr. TR Manoharan, FSC National Representative for India, Vinod Kumar Jindal (ICoAS), Joint Secretary (SBM) & National Mission Director, Swachh Bharat Urban, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, India, Dr. David Meyers, UNDP Global BIOFIN Team, Ravindra Singh, Senior Advisor, GIZ, New Delhi, India, Odjargal Davaajav, Officer, Division of Clean Technology, Investment and Production, Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Mongolia, Anabelle Plantilla, Project Manager of BIOFIN, Philippiness, and Dr. Amita Prasad, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, India. Professor G. Raghuram, Director, IIM Bangalore, will also deliver a special address.
The international workshop is being organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) in partnership with the Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal, BIOFIN Global, the National Biodiversity Authority, the UNDP and Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. The workshop seeks to address the following issues: how biodiversity finance solutions can contribute to sustainable consumption and production, and what the main biodiversity finance solutions are, that have demonstrated a positive impact on sustainable consumption and production.
Background: There is ample global evidence suggesting that there is a serious resource gap when it comes to financing biodiversity conservation. Decisions adopted by Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) highlight the necessity for member countries of the CBD to drastically scale up their efforts to attain the twenty Aichi Biodiversity Targets.
Available evidences indicate that there is very little public engagement or national discourse on the topic of innovative biodiversity finance and financial mechanisms in India. Being a mega biodiverse country with millions directly depending on biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides, India has special need for the preparation of a comprehensive Biodiversity Finance Plan and a Resource Mobilization Strategy. Hence, there is a need for serious public engagement to explore further avenues of biodiversity finance and financial mechanisms.
Central to the preparation of comprehensive BFP is the focus on innovative means and strategies by which resource mobilization strategies can be effected. This is the context for the BIOFIN workshop, proposed by Prof. A Damodaran.
The UNDP initiated BIOFIN project was launched in October 2012 as a global partnership for addressing the various challenges associated with financing of biodiversity conservation in a comprehensive manner. The BIOFIN initiative calls upon member countries to adopt innovative methodologies to measure current biodiversity expenditures, assess financial needs and identify the suitable finance-based solutions to bridge biodiversity finance gaps and achieve the Aichi Targets. Central to the BIOFIN project is the focus on effective and innovative means and strategies by which resource mobilization can be effected to implement the Aichi Targets – including targets related to sustainable production and consumption.