Biodiversity

Biodiversity is very important for the development of cities and in Jammu and Kashmir the government has already constituted a Biodiversity Council.

This Biodiversity Council recently conducted a stakeholder’s consultation meeting for developing Local Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (LBSAP) for Smart City, Jammu.

Local Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (LBSAP) enables the city to build resilience to climate change, mainstream biodiversity conservation into urban planning solutions. The task of developing LBSAP has been assigned to ICLEI South Asia, a renowned agency engaged by UNDP, who is also supporting preparation of the UT level Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan for J&K. The J&K Biodiversity Council has already released the City Biodiversity Index (CBI) for Jammu and Srinagar Smart Cities.

The City Biodiversity Index is an assessment tool for cities to evaluate and monitor the progress of their biodiversity conservation efforts against their own baseline developed during preparation. The information on native biodiversity and ecosystem services provided by the biodiversity and its management by the city administration as given in the City Biodiversity Index will be utilized in developing LBSAP.

The J&K Biodiversity Council is also developing LBSAP for Srinagar Smart City and a stakeholders consultation meeting has been scheduled to be held on 17th November, 2022. Once developed, these LBSAPs for Jammu and Srinagar cities will be the 6th and 7th in the country.