KATHMANDU, Oct 31: Minister for Forests and Environment Ain Bahadur Shahi Thakuri has reiterated Nepal's commitment to biodiversity conservation.
In the UN Biodiversity Summit known as COP-16 being held in Cali of Colombia, Minister Shahi said Nepal has made remarkable progress in restoration of forest areas and conservation of endangered animals, while the number of tigers has increased three-fold.
Addressing the session 'Sustainable Finance, Financial System Reform and the Global Response to Biodiversity', he said that Nepal is home to the world's 2.7 per cent biodiversity though it covers just 0.1 per cent of the world's territory.
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Environment Minister Shahi said that the achievements were the results of the cooperation of women, indigenous nationalities and local communities. He also pointed out the need to acknowledge their costs and contributions.
Shahi said that Nepal has earned 152 million US dollars every year for biodiversity conservation through the community-based conservation initiatives. "However, this is not sufficient to achieve the goal of our biodiversity perspective. We have an 80 million US dollars financing gap every year," he said.
To meet this financing gap, we have been implementing different sustainable financing tools, Minister Shahi shared.
He also said that the commitment of the world community to provide 20 billion US dollars every year for biodiversity conservation till 2025 should be implemented.
Minister Shahi also stressed the need for support from the international community for implementing the plans for biodiversity conservation.
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