Major Actor and their Current Role in Biodiversity Coservation

Abstract

Among government agencies with decision making capabilities, the idea and perception of biodiversity conservation varies greatly. At the national level the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MOEF & CC) being the lead agency understands the value and merit in protecting areas for biodiversity conservation. Unfortunately however the MOEF & CC for many years was caught in the quagmire of "Charismatic Megafauna Syndrome" limited to glamorous mammals such as Tigers and Rhinos. This was to the extent that even call for the launch of a "Project Bustard" on the lines of Project Tiger and Project Elephant has not been given due consideration. Till a few years back MOEF was non-committal on key programmes on other taxa. For example even a demonstration workshop on satellite telemetry for birds (Javed et al. 2001) took nearly 10 years to get a green light. Fortunately in the last few years the MOEF & CC has been more forthcoming and supportive of holistic studies on various elements of biodiversity.