"As you know, India will be the president of CBD for the next two years. This is the special period. We hope to benefit from India, with its initiatives, its leadership to engage all the countries. India is doing some wonderful work," Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, said here.
He was speaking at the launch of a 'Green Kumbh', which is a 'yatra' to spread the message of conserving biodiversity at the ongoing UN convention on biological diversity.
"I am glad to have this meeting (convention on biodiversity) here. India is not only rich in biodiversity but also in culture, tradition. The countries in the world respect that. It is good to have this meeting in India," he said.
Observing that there are two million sq km of degraded lands all over the world, he said each of us need to plant a tree every year and engage all families to ensure that environment conservation is taken care of.
The Executive Secretary was presented with a 'kumbh' (a brass pitcher) on the occasion by prominent Hindu religious leader from Andhra Pradesh Sri Tridandi Narayana Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji.
"The Green Kumbh Yatra will be an environmental pilgrimage on foot and non-motorised vehicles that will traverse 1,125 km and culminate in Allahabad, the site of the Maha Kumbh in 2013," the organisers said.
The CBD was signed by 150 government leaders at the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit and seeks to address threats to biodiversity and ecosystem, including those by climate change, through scientific assessments, incentives, transfer of technologies and active involvement of local communities, NGOs etc.
