Kerala’s biodiversity management and conservation efforts are taking a new course with around 400 biodiversity management committees (BMC) coming forward to update their people’s biodiversity registry (PBR). The PBR documents information on bioresources, including plants and animals, and traditional knowledge of a local body besides the landscape details and demography of the area.
The BMCs of Kadalundi and Kayanna panchayats of Kozhikode district and Karivellur and Peralam panchayats of Kannur district have already updated the documents. All the 78 local bodies in Alappuzha district have earmarked funds for the updation programme. The Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSBB) will soon organise a district-level training programme for the BMCs.
Kerala had earlier set a record of sorts with all the 1,034 BMCs preparing the PBR. The document, prepared nearly a decade ago, needs to be updated. The presence and impact of invasive species, including plants and animals, will be recorded. The impact of the 2018 floods on the local biodiversity will also be covered during the exercise, says George Thomas, KSBB Chairperson. Besides the BMCs, educational institutions and researchers are also joining the campaign and contributing to updating of the document, he says.
The campaign has received good response from the local bodies and most of them have earmarked funds for the process, says V. Balakrishnan, Member-Secretary of the board. The board had earlier organised training programmes for the BMCs to update the PBR. The data generated during the process will be in such a manner that it could be used to prepare an electronic PBR, an initiative of the National Biodiversity Authority, he says.
The exercise in Kumbalam village panchayat in Kochi saw fisheries researchers from the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies and the Cochin Natural History Society joining hands with the BMC. The survey helped in enumerating 35 species of wetland and wetland-dependent bird species. The presence of a large number of bird species was also recorded, says C. Vishnupriyan Kartha, secretary of the society. A three-day fish sampling exercise at Kumbalam Lake helped in identifying 70 fish species, says P.H. Anwar Ali, Assistant Professor of Fisheries Resource Management at the university. The count is expected to go up, he says .