India launches biological diversity preservation initiative

A new initiative has been launched by the Indian government to highlight the economic consequences of the loss of biological diversity and the associated decline in ecosystem services, an official statement said on Thursday.

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity TEEB-India Initiative (TII) focuses on three ecosystems -- forests, inland wetlands and coastal and marine ecosystems - and has been implemented under the Indo-German biodiversity programme.

"The outcome of the pilot projects will be fed into the sectoral synthesis for the three ecosystems. It will be released at the Brazil-India-Germany TEEB Dialogue, being hosted by India in September 2015," the environment, forests and climate change ministry said in a statement.

"The overall study report will be released at the 21st session of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) being held in November-December, 2015 at Paris," said the statement.