Hope for 1 lakh trees: Karnataka refuses to handover Sandur forest for mining 

Around 402 hectares of virgin forest in Swamymalai near Devadari Hills in Sandur were saved after state government refused the approval of its handover to mining company Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited (KIOCL), reported the South First. 

Union Minister for Steel and Heavy Industries HD Kumaraswamy in the previous government had given the Centre’s approval to lease the virgin land to KIOCL on June 18.

Following an uproar by environmentalists, activists and state forest department, the Centre said it was a procedural continuation of a decision made in 2017, adding that the state government had approved the project. Complaints were received that KIOCL had failed to fully implement directions of the Central Empowered Committee for mining lapses/violations of the Forest Act in the past in Kudremukh National Park within the stipulated timeframe, the release added.

Can shift forests, but not minerals, industries, Goa tells Centre

Goa is pushing hard to get the Centre to drop 36 villages from the list of 99 eco-sensitive zone claiming that many of those villages have minerals necessary for local construction projects. The government said while forests can be moved from one place to another, natural resources and industries can’t.

Making a case to get the forest land the government argued that Goa was not prone to soil erosion and that it should be allowed to exploration of resources for economic sustainability, and its earned of potential loss of jobs of inhabitants.

India also goes for parametric insurance to get loss and damage money for disasters

Nagaland became the first in India to insure its entire geography against heavy precipitation through parametric insurance . Unlike regular insurance schemes, which are based on indemnity, or an evaluation of losses post a disaster event, parametric insurance relies on a predetermined set of parameters which, when met, triggers a payout immediately.

 “There is no survey or lengthy assessment period, which is the main point of difference,” said Pankaj Tomar, India head of Axa Climate, a venture of the AXA Group focussed on creating climate adaptation solutions, reported Mongabay. 

The low lying parts of Nagaland are flood prone as the state faces heavy rainfall every monsoon season. In 2017, the state was devastated by floods that killed 22 people, completely or partially destroyed 7,700 homes, and affected a third of the state’s population. Between 2018 and 2021, incidents of water- and climate-related hazards increased from 337 to 814, according to the state government’s own disaster statistics report. “Nagaland is a small state, and the damages from these types of events run into hundreds of crores, which can’t be supported by the SDRF alone,” said Johnny Ruangmei, joint chief executive officer of the Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA).

Biodiversity finance: Report says rich nations must meet target of providing $20 billion a year to developing countries from 2025

Rich nations, mainly Japan, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Korea and Spain failed to meet the commitment to provide $20 billion per year in biodiversity finance to developing countries by 2025, a new report flagged. This target is part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework or the Biodiversity Plan adopted in 2022 at the 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16).

Months ahead of the deadline, the report said developed countries need to pay more as only two out of 28 developed countries are contributing their fair share of the $20 billion, with most of them needing to at least double their funding to help halt and reverse biodiversity loss across Earth. 

The report’s calculations took into account countries’ historical impact on biodiversity, their ability to pay and population size in calculating what they should pay. Norway and Sweden were the only countries providing more than their fair share, Germany and France were providing 99% and 92%, respectively, and Australia was at 74% of its fair share. The largest dollar gaps were in Japan, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Korea and Spain. Together, they account for 71% of the aggregate shortfall.

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