Corporation 2020 author Pavan Sukhdev, after attending conferences in Hyderabad, India and Bhutan, shared some thoughts with The Guardian's Sustainable Business Blog. Can carefully planned, largely-funded efforts to conserve biodiversity achieve what culturally-driven efforts already have?
The results of COP 11 discussions [in Hyderabad] were not disappointing in themselves, but it was sad that the wider goals of sustainable development for which they are essential did not receive more urgent and widespread attention. I drove along the Paro river through mountain-flanked valleys from the airport to Thimphu, Bhutan's capital, and was greeted by legions of fluttering prayer flags dancing out their hymns to the drumbeat of a bracing mountain wind. Far below, the crystal waters of the Paro sparkled in rhythmic company, flashing clear Himalayan sunlight. Carpets of red chilies, carefully laid to dry on the low sloping tin roofs of Bhutanese homes, soaked in this bright hot sun. In Bhutan, biodiversity is everywhere around you, abundant and healthy. People love it and respect it. This is the kind of world that all those [COP 11] Aichi Targets seek to achieve, and it lives here for all to see. Bhutan doesn't have billions of dollars to finance this biodiversity conservation. Instead, it is ingrained in the culture and history of the land.Read the rest of Pavan's thoughts here.