This presentation contains about all the International Conventions related to forestry issue. Earth Summit or Rio Convention held in Rio de Janerio in 1992 gave rise to three sister conventions- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, United Nations Convention on Biodiversity and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. Other conventions related to forestry issue are Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, International Union for Conservation of Nature, United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation plus Sustainable development and Improving and conserving the carbon stocks, Ramsar sites (Wetlands of International Importance) and Bonn Convention. This presentation also contains information about India's involvement in those conventions and endangered species and sites in India of International importance. It will provide you the information on member states and organizations involved in international conventions on forestry issue.

1. Shubham Shah (MSF-2022-170)
M.Sc. Forest Resource
Management

2.  International conventions are legally binding agreements negotiated among
governments to take action at global level.
 Creation of convention is a complex process from issue identification to entry into
force.
 Climate Change, desertification and biodiversity loss are heavily interlinked and
pose existential challenges to humanity. In response to these challenges,
Governments founded three sister “Rio Conventions” at the 1992 Earth
Summit in Rio de Janerio, Brazil.
 These are:
o The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
o United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD)
o United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)

3.  CBD
 UNCCD
 UNFCCC
 CITES – Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Flora and Fauna
 IUCN – International Union for Conservation of Nature
 RAMSAR
 UN REDD+ - Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest
Degradation
 Bonn Convention
Rio Conventions

4.  CITES also known as the Washington Convention, is a multilateral treaty to
protect endangered species of plants and animals from the threat of international
trade.
 It came into force on 1st July, 1975 and is administered by United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) with secretariat located at Geneva,
Switzerland.
 Currently there are 184 member parties and trade is regulated in more than
38,000 species.
 India became the 25th CITES party in 1976.
 The list of protected species are grouped into three categories with different levels
of protection:
o Appendix I (1,082 spp.) : World’s most endangered plants and animals such
as pangolins, tigers and gorillas. International trade in these species is
completely banned except for scientific research

5. o Appendix II (37,420 spp.) : Species such as lion, mahogany and many
corals that are not yet threatened with extinction, but can be in near future if
unlimited trade were allowed.
o Appendix III (211 spp.) : It is a list of species such as map turtles and
walrus included at the request of a party that already regulates trade in that
species.
 Over the past 42 years , CITES has recorded over 1.2 crore international trade
transactions.
 India, being a CITES party actively regulates international trade of endangered
species through certificates for exports, permits for imports, etc.
 In the 19th COP held in Panama City, India’s proposal to include Dalbergia
sissoo in Appendix II has been accepted.

6.  The Convention on Biological Diversity entered into force on 29th December,
1993.
 It has 3 main objectives :
o The conservation of biological diversity.
o The sustainable use of components of biological diversity.
o The fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of
genetic resources.
 At present, there are 196 member parties in CBD. India became its member party
in 1994.
 The Conference of Parties has established seven thematic programmes of work
which are :

7. o Agricultural Biodiversity
o Island Biodiversity
o Dry and Sub-humid Lands Biodiversity
o Marine and Coastal Biodiversity
o Forest Biodiversity
o Mountain Biodiversity
o Inland Waters Biodiversity
 The programme of work on forest biodiversity consists of three elements :
o Conservation, sustainable use and benefit sharing
o Institutional and socioeconomic enabling environment
o Knowledge, assessment and monitoring
 The CBD addresses forest issues directly with the ecosystem approach as the
primary framework for action and through its other thematic programmes of work
on traditional knowledge and protected areas.

8.  IUCN is an International organization working in the field of nature conservation
and sustainable use of natural resources founded on 5th October, 1948.
 Headquarters : Gland, Switzerland
 It is a union of more than 1,400 member organizations from over 170 countries.
 The IUCN works to achieve the following goals :
o To provide scientific data on the status of species and subspecies at global
level.
o To address the factors of concern and spread awareness regarding the species
and biodiversity extinction.
o To plan a layout for the conservation of biodiversity.
 IUCN is at the forefront of global efforts to halt the extinction crisis and to
sustainably manage, conserve and restore ecosystems.

9.  IUCN offers Red List of Threatened Species which is a comprehensive
information source on the global extinction risk status of animal, fungus and
plant species.
 More than 1,42,500 species have been assessed for The IUCN Red List of
Threatened Species.

10.  Ramsar convention is a convention on wetlands that was signed in 1971 in the
Iranian city of Ramsar and came into force in 1975.
 There are presently 172 contracting parties to the convention, with 2,455 wetland
sites designated for inclusion in the Ramsar List of Wetlands of
International Importance.
 The main objective of this convention is “the conservation and wise use of all
wetlands through local and national actions and international cooperation, as a
contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the
 The convention uses a broad definition of wetlands and includes lakes, rivers,
underground aquifers, swamps and marshes, wet grasslands, peatlands, estuaries,
deltas and tidal flats, mangroves and other coastal areas, coral reefs, and human
made sites such as fish ponds, rice paddies, reservoirs and salt pans.

11.  The convention works on three pillars that define the purpose of Ramsar
Convention :
o Wise Use – To work towards the wise use of all wetlands.
o List of Wetlands of International Importance – Designate suitable
under the Ramsar List to effectively manage those.
o International Cooperation – To bring cooperation internationally over the
transboundary wetlands, shared wetland systems and shared species.
 At present there are 75 Ramsar sites in India.
Lonar lake, Maharashtra Wular lake, Kashmir
Shakambari salt pan,
Jaipur
Tso Moriri lake,
Ladakh

12.  Entered into force in 1996, UNCCD is a sole legally binding environment
convention that links development and environment to sustainable land
management.
 The UNCCD addresses particularly the arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid
areas ,called drylands, where some of the most vulnerable ecosystems are found.
 Its main objective is to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of
drought through national action programmes that incorporate long term
supported by international cooperation and partnership arrangements.
 The convention focusses on having a bottom-up approach to achieve its goals, by
involving the local communities.
 India ratified the Convention to Combat Desertification in December 1996.

13.  The 14th Conference of Parties was held in India (New Delhi) in 2019 and
the theme of the conference was “Restore land, Sustain future”.
 The Conference adopted the Delhi Declaration and expressed a range of issues
which includes gender and health, ecosystem restoration, taking action
on climate change, private sector engagement, Peace Forest Initiative
recovery of 26 million hectares of degraded land in India.
 The Convention’s 2018-2030 strategic framework is a comprehensive
international commitment to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (NDL)
aiming at :
o The restoration of productivity of degraded lands.
o Enhancing the livelihoods of people dependent on them.
o Mitigating the impacts of drought on vulnerable populations.
 UNCCD believes that forests and trees are at the heart of Land Degradation
Neutrality.

14.  UNFCCC is an international environment treaty to combat “dangerous human
interference with the climate system”.
 It entered into force on 21st March, 1994 with present headquarters in Bonn,
Germany.
 Presently 198 countries have ratified the convention and are called Parties to the
Convention.
 The ultimate objective of the convention is to stabilize greenhouse gas
concentrations, “at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic
interference with the climate system”.
 It states that, “such a level should be achieved within a time-frame
sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to
production is not threatened, and to enable economic development to
sustainable manner.”
 The Convention addresses forests as a key solution to climate change.

15.  Reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries
 The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Forestry – CDM project
activities related to forestry include reforestation and afforestation projects, and such
such projects in addition to mitigation benefits could also have benefits for
biodiversity and environmental conservation.
 National Annual Greenhouse Gas Inventory – Parties to the Convention provide
data and information on their GHG emissions from land use, land-use change and
and forestry (LULUCF) to the UNFCCC.

16.  REDD+ stands for “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest
Degradation, plus the sustainable management of forests, and the
enhancement of forest carbon stocks”.
 It is a framework created by UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP) to guide
activities in the forest sector.
 It aims at the implementation of activities by national governments to reduce
human pressure on forests that results in greenhouse gas emissions at
national level.
 The framework is commonly referred to as Warsaw Framework for REDD+
(WFD) adopted at COP 19 in Warsaw, December 2013.

18.  Bonn Convention is other name to the Convention on Conservation of
Migratory Species of Wild Animals.
 It was adopted in Bonn, Germany and came into force in 1983.
 The aim of this Convention is to protect migratory species of wild animals and their
their habitats.
 The range of states from where migratory species pass are brought together under
under CMS to enable measures for their conservation and protection.
 CMS has two appendices that list migratory species to which the Convention applies :

19. Elephas maximus
indicus
Baleanoptera
borealis
Diomedea
antipodensis
Chelonia
mydas

20. o Appendix II - It comprises those migratory species that need conservation
through international agreements and will significantly benefit from such
conservational efforts.
Dugong
dugon
Eiodolon
helvum
Vicugna
vicugna
Mycteria
ibis