Sustainable forestry paramount for biodiversity conservation: FAO (GS Paper 3, Environment)
Context:
- The role of forests in maintaining biodiversity is explicitly recognised by the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017–2030. In 2019, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) adopted the Strategy on Mainstreaming Biodiversity across Agricultural Sectors
- FAO’s forestry statutory body, Committee on Forestry (COFO), had asked FAO to review biodiversity mainstreaming in forestry in its 25th session in 2020.
- The report was released recently, at the 8th World Forest Week on the sidelines of the 26th session of COFO taking place in Rome, Italy.
Stakeholders:
- It was produced through a partnership between FAO and the non-profit Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the lead centre of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry.
- CGIAR is a global partnership that unites international organisations engaged in research about food security.
What is Mainstreaming biodiversity?
- Forests that are managed primarily for economic benefits are critical for biodiversity conservation. Mainstreaming biodiversity in such ‘production forests’ is paramount.
- Embedding biodiversity considerations into policies, strategies and practices of key public and private actors to promote the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources is called ‘mainstreaming biodiversity’.
- Mainstreaming biodiversity in forestry involves prioritising forest policies, plans, programmes, projects and investments that have a positive impact on biodiversity at the ecosystem, species and genetic levels.
- Biodiversity mainstreaming in the forest sector requires integrated multi-stakeholder approaches that cross-sectoral boundaries.
Forests:
- Forests cover 31 per cent of the world’s land surface, store an estimated 296 gigatonnes of carbon and are home to most of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity.
- The world’s forests provide habitats for about 80 per cent of amphibian species, 75 per cent of bird species and 68 per cent of mammal species.
- In addition, about 60 per cent of all vascular plants occur in tropical forests. But forests and their biodiversity continue to be lost at an alarming rate.
Threats:
- Weak governance and law enforcement are the biggest stumbling blocks behind biodiversity conservation in protected areas
- Deforestation is the greatest driver of the loss of valuable biodiversity, with around 10 million hectares lost to deforestation each year, mainly for agricultural expansion. Other threats include over-harvesting of timber, invasive species, climate change, desertification and forest fires.
Recommendations:
- The report recommended various measures and actions that governments and development partners can take to facilitate the mainstreaming of biodiversity in forest management:
- Halting and reversing deforestation
- Combating illegal and unregulated forest activities
- Recognising the forest tenure of Indigenous Peoples and local communities
- Preventing the conversion of natural forests into monospecific forest plantations
- Ensuring the sustainable management of harvested species
- Managing and controlling invasive and overabundant species
- Leveraging global momentum on restoration to enhance biodiversity conservation
- Adopting a multisectoral perspective
- Providing economic incentives
- Facilitating market-based instruments
- Investing in knowledge and capacity development
Way Forward:
- The involvement of Indigenous Peoples, local communities and the private sector in biodiversity management should be a priority and laws, policies and national strategies for biodiversity conservation should take into account forests other than protected areas.
Amasia, the new supercontinent
(GS Paper 1, Geography)
Why in news?
- The Pacific Ocean is shrinking and as a result, Asia will crash into the Americas leading the way for one big supercontinent called ‘Amasia’.
- According to new research conducted at Australia’s New Curtin University, scientists used a supercomputer to determine how the world will look once the supercontinent is formed.
- Their calculations revealed that Amasia will be a combination of present-day American and Asian continents which will be formed 200 to 300 million years from now.
What is a supercontinent?
- A supercontinent is one large landmass that is formed as a result of the convergence of several other existing continents.
- The concept was first proposed by a scientist called Alfred Wegner, who tried to explain the idea behind supercontinents in 1912. He included the concept in his theory of continental motion.
- Through his study, which was backed by new and old evidence, he tried to suggest that all the continents of Earth had once been part of a single body. He initially termed it as “Urkontinent”.
- With the help of his theory, modern-day scientists are now able to study plate tectonics.
- Scientists suggest that in the past, at least seven supercontinents were known to be present on Earth.
- A supercontinent cycle occurs every 600 million years and during this process, it brings all continents of the world together.
Process involved:
- The supercontinents are formed by two processes, namely extroversion and introversion. During extroversion, the oceanic lithosphere surrounding the supercontinent is subducted – a geological process where a tectonic plate converges with a less dense lithosphere of a second plate.
- On the other hand, introversion begins when subduction zones are initiated along boundaries between the interior and exterior oceans.
What will Amasia be like?
- By simulating the Earth’s tectonic plates using a supercomputer the team was able to show that in less than 300 million years’ time the shrinking of the Pacific Ocean will make way for the formation of Amasia.
- The resulting new supercontinent has already been named Amasia because some believe that the Pacific Ocean will close (as opposed to the Atlantic and Indian oceans) when America collides with Asia. Australia is also expected to play a role in this important Earth event, first colliding with Asia and then connecting America and Asia once the Pacific Ocean closes.
- Amasia would form on the top of the Earth and would eventually slump south toward the equator. If this happens, Antarctica might remain isolated at the bottom of the world.
- The researchers have predicted that with the formation of Amasia, the planet can be expected to be drastically different from what it is now.
- The water levels in the seas will dip and the interiors of the supercontinent are expected to turn into arid regions. Apart from this, daily temperatures are also expected to have high ranges.
What are some other supercontinents?
- The oldest supercontinent called Columbia (Nuna), came together about 1.8 billion years ago.
- After Nuna broke apart, Rodinia formed about one billion years ago.
- The most recently found supercontinent is Pangaea, which came together about 300 million years ago.
- Columbia (Nuna) broke apart to form Rodinia through the process of inversion.
Why is the Pacific Ocean shrinking?
- The Pacific Ocean hosts a circle of subduction zones called the ‘Ring of Fire’, which is a 24,900-mile-long path along the ocean’s edge, according to a report by World Atlas.
- The ocean is also home to about 75 per cent of the world’s volcanoes and 95 per cent of all earthquakes happen there.
- The Pacific’s mid-ocean ridge is a fast-spreading centre that spreads about three to six inches a year. However, the growth of the Pacific Ocean is slowed down due to the destruction of old crusts which is hindering the formation of new seafloor.
- Apart from this, the Atlantic Ocean is currently expanding and the expansion of another ocean is also causing Pacific to shrink.
RBI to launch e-rupee
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- The Reserve Bank of India will soon begin the pilot launch of e-rupee for specific use cases.
- Releasing a concept note on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), the RBI said it will launch the digital currency with the aim to strengthen India’s digital economy, provide more efficient payment systems and keep a check on money laundering.
Details:
- The RBI’s digital currency is not meant to replace the existing payment systems but to render an additional route to users.
- Supported by state-of-the-art payment systems of India that are affordable, accessible, convenient, efficient, safe and secure, the Digital Rupee (e₹) system will further bolster India’s digital economy, make the monetary and payment systems more efficient and contribute to furthering financial inclusion.
- On 1 February 2022, the central government had announced the launch of the digital rupee, CBDC from the fiscal year 2022-23 onwards in the Union Budget.
What is CBDC?
- The Central Bank Digital Currency is a legal tender issued in a digital form by a central bank.
- It is akin to sovereign paper currency but takes a different form, exchangeable at par with the existing currency and shall be accepted as a medium of payment, legal tender, and a safe store of value. CBDCs would appear as a liability on a central bank’s balance sheet.
- RBI’s digital currency can be easily converted against commercial bank money and cash.
- CBDC is a “fungible legal tender” for which holders do not require to have a bank account.
- The central bank digital currency is expected to generate huge sets of data in real time.
Types of CBDC:
- Retail CBDC, an electronic version of cash, would be available for everyone.
- Wholesale CBDCis designed to give exclusive access to select financial institutions. This e-rupee will be used for the settlement of interbank transfers and related wholesale transactions.
- It is believed that retail CBDC can provide access to safe money for payment and settlement as it is a direct liability of the central bank. Wholesale CBDC has the potential to transform settlement systems for financial transactions and make them more efficient and secure.
- Going by the potential offered by each of them, there may be merit in introducing both CBDC-W and CBDC-R.
How is CBDC different from cryptocurrency?
- The RBI’s digital currency is different from cryptocurrencies which are decentralised and lack the tag of being a ‘legal tender’.
- Unlike cryptocurrencies which are volatile assets, the CBDC is a fiat currency that is designed for stability and safety.
- The proliferation of crypto assets can pose significant risks related to money laundering & financing of terrorism.
- Further, the unabated use of crypto assets can be a threat to the monetary policy objectives as it may lead to creation of a parallel economy and will likely undermine the monetary policy transmission and stability of the domestic currency. It will also adversely affect the enforcement of foreign exchange regulations, especially, the circumvention of capital flow measures.
Which countries have CBDC?
- 10 countries and territories have so far rolled out CBDCs including Jamaica, The Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis, Monserrat, Dominica, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Nigeria.
- Countries like the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom are also exploring introducing central bank-issued digital currency.
- China is also seeking to expand its use of digital yuan (e-CNY) which was launched earlier in 2022 on a pilot basis.
Nobel Peace Prize 2022
(Miscellaneous)
Why in news?
- The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize has been jointly awarded to Belarusian human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial, and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Centre for Civil Liberties.
- The award was announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo
- All these three laureates represent civil society in their home countries. For many years, they have promoted the right to criticise power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens.
Ales Bialiatski:
- The 60-year-old, imprisoned in jail for alleged tax evasion, is known for working with the Human Rights Centre ‘Viasna’.
- Bialiatski's activism began in the early 1980s when he got involved in several pro-democracy initiatives, including a group called Belarusian Clandestine Party "Independence", aiming to foster Belarus's leaving the Soviet Union and forming a sovereign and democratic country.
- He founded the human rights Centre ‘Viasna’ in 1996. The Minsk-based organisation, then called "Viasna-96", was transformed into a nationwide NGO in June 1999.
- On October 28, 2003, the Supreme Court of Belarus cancelled the state registration of the Human Rights Centre "Viasna" for its role in observing the 2001 presidential election. Since then, the leading Belarusian human rights organisation has been working without registration.
- On August 4, 2011, Ales Bialiatskiwas arrested under tax evasion charges. Many Belarusian human rights activists, European Union leaders, EU governments, and the US called his sentencing politically motivated.
- On August 11, Amnesty International declared Bialiatski, a prisoner of conscience. On June 21, 2014, he was released from prison 20 months ahead of schedule.
- On July 14, 2021, the Belarusian police raided Viasna's central office, following which Bialiatskiwas arrested and, on October 6, was charged with tax evasion with a maximum penalty of 7 years in prison.
Memorial- Russia:
- Founded during the fall of the Soviet Union to examine crimes committed under Joseph Stalin's rule, Memorial is an international human rights organisation.
- Before its dissolution six months ago, it consisted of two separate legal entities, Memorial International, which recorded the crimes against humanity committed in the Soviet Union, and the Memorial Human Rights Centre, which focused on protecting human rights.
- The Memorial as a legal entity in Russia was closed and liquidated on April 5, 2022.
- In December 2021, a joint statement was released by the European Union, the US, Australia, Canada, and the UK, criticising the Russian court's decisions to shut Memorial and calling on Russia "to uphold its international human rights obligations and commitments".
According to its post-Soviet 1992 charter, Memorial pursued the following aims:
- To promote mature civil society and democracy based on the rule of law and thus prevent a return to totalitarianism;
- To assist the formation of public awareness based on the values of democracy and law, to extirpate totalitarian patterns (of thought and behavior), and to firmly establish human rights in everyday politics and public life;
- To promote the truth about the historical past and perpetuate the memory of the victims of political repression carried out by totalitarian regimes.
Center for Civil Liberties- Ukraine:
- The Center for Civil Liberties is a Ukrainian human rights organisation led by lawyer OleksandraMatviichuk. In 2007, leaders of human rights organisations from nine post-Soviet countries decided to create a cross-border resource support centre in Kyiv.
- Since then, the group has organised several information campaigns and international conferences.
- It carries out public control over human rights compliance in the activities of state and local government bodies; works with young people to form a new generation of young human rights activists and social activists; educates in the sphere of human rights and democracy, as well as implements a programme of international solidarity.
- Its mission is to establish human rights, democracy, and solidarity in Ukraine and the OSCE region to affirm human dignity.
About Nobel Prizes:
- Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, engineer, industrialist, and the inventor of dynamite, in his last will and testament in 1895, gave the largest share of his fortune to a series of prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology/Medicine, Literature, and Peace, to be called the “Nobel Prizes”.
- In 1968, the sixth award, the Prize in Economic Sciences was started.
- In 2021, journalists Dmitry Muratov of Russia and Maria Ressa of the Philippines had won the Peace award for “their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”
What’s next?
- These three winners will share the prize money of 10,000,000 Swedish Krona ($9,00,000), which will be officially handed over at a ceremony on 10 December.
