GUWAHATI: Two noted conservation biologist from the Northeast have participated and delivered lectures at the International Conference on Conservation of Flagship species and their habitats in Hindu-Kush Himalaya (HKH) region which is being held at Chengdu, China from 27-31 August, 2019. This workshop is being organised by Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CIB- CAS) and ICIMOD.
Dr. Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, Secretary General and CEO of Aaranyak delivered a talk on Current Status of rhinos in India. Dr Talukdar who is also the Chair of IUCN/SSC; Asian Rhino Specialist Group and Asia Coordinator of International Rhino Foundation and Dr Dilip Chetry, a renowned primatologist of North East India delivered a talk on Status of Gibbon Conservation in India. Dr Chetry heads Primates Research ad Conservation Division (PRCD) of biodiversity conservation and research organsation, Aaranyak.
Dr Talukdar while participating in the inaugural ceremony as representative of international participants, said that Hindu-Kush Himalaya region is unique because of altitudinal gradient which makes diverse ecosystems and habitat types that attracts varieties of life forms.
“Although the region also has higher human population density, it also has unique biodiversity. The Hindu-Kush region of Himalayas has four global biodiversity hotspots out of 36 global biodiversity hotspots. (Hindu-Kush Himalaya Regions includes eight countries – Afghanistan Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, China and Bangladesh,” Dr. Talukdar said. He said that humans can play a positive role to bring desired positive changes to improve the quality of environment and thereby quality of life.
Both the conservation leaders from the Northeast highlighted current population, trends of change, and geographical distribution; why this species is important for conservation/conservation value of this species as a flagship species; conservation status and major threats the species is facing; research status and major information gap; issues related to cross-border (including domestic administrative boundaries) and need for transboundary collaboration; recommendations for conservation management.
The purpose of this workshop is to review the status of the flagship wildlife species and their conservation in the globally important biodiversity hotspot areas in the HKH region, namely the Mountains of Southwest China, Indo-Burma, Himalayas, the Central Asian Mountains, all shared by China with other countries in the HKH region.
The workshop will facilitate exchange of conservation information and experiences; assess the effectiveness of the current conservation strategies; promote synergy and dialogue in conservation research, practice, and policies; and provide scientific information and action recommendations for post-2020 actions for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
The primary goal is to promote effective regional collaboration in biodiversity conservation among concerned countries. From presentation of this workshop, a publication to the CBD COP (Conference of Parties) 15 in Kunming in 2020 shall be done.