Odishatv Bureau
Hyderabad: India Inc is yet to take an active part in conserving biodiversity of the country even though it is engaged in climate change programme, said Braulio F de Souza Dias, the executive secretary, Convention on Biodiversity, Canada.

He hoped that the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), scheduled to take place here between October 1 and 19, will help create more awareness among Indian corporate houses on biodiversity.

"Indian business houses have to go a long way. My perception is that the country's corporate sector is widely engaged with climate change agenda but not that much with biodiversity," Dias, who would be participating in the COP 11 here, told PTI from Canada.

Citing an example of Tokyo where a 'global platform of business and biodiversity' was created after the COP-10 in October 2010, Dias said a similar organisation at national level should be set up in India. The platform aims at promoting markets that support nature conservation and sustainable use.

"We look forward for more commitments from business sector in India as we see in some other countries like Japan," he said.

Replying to query, he said countries at national and local level should also allocate more budgets towards conserving biodiversity.

"There is also a need for more transfer of funding from developed countries to developing nations and there is a need to enhance financial mechanism that could help the sustainability of the protected areas," Dias said.

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