Recent Current Affairs related to Biodiversity

According to the “2026 Living Planet Report (LPR): The Science of Hope” released by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in partnership with the Zoological Society of London, an average of 73% of monitored wildlife populations globally declined over the 50-year period between 1970 and 2022.

The report states that freshwater wildlife populations witnessed the sharpest average decline at 85%, while habitat loss and degradation emerged as the most frequently reported threats. Region-wise, Latin America and the Caribbean reported the steepest decline in monitored wildlife populations at 95%.

The Kerala government has launched India’s first State-level Red List Assessment of Ecosystems (RLE) project to shift conservation from species-focused preservation to proactive, landscape-wide ecosystem management.

The 1-year project addresses critical habitat degradation, including an 83% loss of tropical riparian evergreen forests in the Western Ghats. It will evaluate collapse risks across all 14 districts using the criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

India has reaffirmed its commitment to the conservation of whales and other cetaceans at the 70th Meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC-70) held in Hobart, Australia.

The meeting coincided with the 80th anniversary of the signing of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, which is the international treaty for whale conservation. It is to be noted that Dr Urbain Brito of Benin was elected as the Chair of the IWC-70, and Anne-Marie Svoboda of Netherlands was appointed as the Vice-Chair.

The IWC-70 adopted the “Hobart Declaration” by consensus and passed resolutions to address fish-maw trade-related cetacean bycatch, vessel strikes, and cetacean strandings. India advocated for the implementation of science-based conservation strategies during the proceedings.

According to the “Environmental Performance Index (EPI 2026)” released by the Yale University, India is ranked at 176th out of 177 countries with a score of 22.46.

Estonia is ranked first with a score of 74.7, followed by Luxembourg, the United Kingdom (UK), Finland, and the Netherlands. Laos is ranked lowest in the index with a score of 21.78.

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh has dedicated the first Eco-Educational Hub of India, ‘Prakriti Gyan Dham’, to the nation. Located at the Maharishi Parashar Bioresource Centre (MPBC), Banthra Campus in Lucknow, the hub was developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Botanical Research Institute (CSIR-NBRI).

The facility serves as a living repository of the botanical diversity of the country, aiming to promote hands-on experiential learning, biodiversity conservation, and public outreach.

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) has signed a 3-year MoU with the Lucknow-based Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Botanical Research Institute (CSIR-NBRI) to promote research and development for the conservation and ethnobotanical assessment of tribal bioresources in India.

The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), has reconstituted the Expert Committee on Agrobiodiversity for a tenure of 1 year.

Dr PL Gautam has been appointed as the Chair of the committee, and Dr Trilochan Mohapatra has been appointed as the Co-Chair.

World Endangered Species Day:

Day – Third Friday in May (May 15 in 2026)

Theme 2026 – “Celebrating America’s Wildlife Comeback Stories. Championing the Endangered Species Act”

Observed since – 2006

The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has designated two more institutions as national repositories under Section 39 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (BD Act). The initiative aims to enhance the conservation and systematic documentation of biological resources.

The new repositories include the Referral Centre Bhavasagara at the Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology (CMLRE) in Kochi (Kerala) and the MACS Collection of Microorganisms and National Fungal Culture Collection at the Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) in Pune (Maharashtra). With the additions, the total count of the national network of repositories has increased to 20.