The GEO BON Global Conference: Monitoring Biodiversity for Action was held at Centre Mont-Royal, Montreal, Canada, from October 10–13, 2023. It aimed to provide a whole-of-society approach for urgent and transformative change along the broad themes of Global Biodiversity Observing System (GBiOS), Essential Variables, Science and Innovation, Policy and Engagement, Community-based Monitoring, and Communication across Society. The programme featured dynamic four-day sessions and workshops with participants from all over the world.
Arghya Chakrabarty (Technical Officer- Biodiversity) delivered the talk on “Embedding economic values of ecosystem services in development plans: A case study from Indian Western Himalayan Region.”
On October 10, 2023, at the session “Mainstreaming Biodiversity Monitoring into Policy and Practice,” Arghya Chakrabarty, Technical Officer – Biodiversity, and Harsh Ganapathi, Senior Technical Officer – Ecohydrology, of Wetlands International South Asia, gave a talk titled “Embedding economic values of ecosystem services in development plans: A case study from Indian Western Himalayan Region”. They illustrated how ecosystem services are interdependent with development sectors and how sectoral plans can take the economic values of these services into account. Five essential ecosystem services were identified by the landscape social-ecological system characterization: water supply and storage, carbon storage, livestock feed, flood buffering, and tourism. These services were evaluated and valued using a combination of market and non-market methods, resulting in an annual flow that ranged from US$ 870.64 million to US$ 895.18 million. The authors emphasised the necessity of incorporating these economic values into sectoral development plans in order to facilitate efficient landscape management and conservation for the ongoing provision of these ecosystem services.
Harsh Ganapathi (Senior Technical Officer – Ecohydrology) and Arghya Chakrabarty (Technical Officer- Biodiversity) interacted and responded to questions from eminent scientists and other conference participants.
Besides their talk, the Wetlands International South Asia team also participated in and contributed to a variety of sessions and box-in-a-box workshops, as well as engaged in prospective collaborative discussions with like-minded peer researchers, policymakers, and representatives of CSOs and NGOs from across the world.