Hyderabad|India|June '2011:The 11th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will be held from October 1-19 next year in Hyderabad. Environment Ministers and Forests Ministers of about 194 countries will be attending the Conference, International organisations like World Bank and ADB will also be participating. Nearly 8,000 to 10,000 delegates will discuss issues relating to bio-diversity and bio safety.

Disclosing this at a press conference in the city,the Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Shri Jairam Ramesh said that Hyderabad was chosen over Delhi due to the better conferencing facilities and HICC was chosen as the venue for the Conference. Being organised at the cost of about Rs.87 crores, he said that it was a matter of great pride that India will be hosting such an international event for the first ever in the last 60 years. Further, the conference would benefit the State– (a) creating major impetus of tourism (b) provide opportunities for exhibition of forest based products, © it will put Hyderabad on international map as the declarations would be known after the city.

On the issues of ports along the east coast the Minister informed that satellite based imaging for the southern states including Andhra Pradesh would be completed by August this year which would enable the ports to be classified into three categories - high erosion, medium and low erosion. Further, construction activity would depend on the satellite imagery data and the data yielded by the Hazard Mapping system to be completed in couple of years, he said. He also said that the Central Government would have a final say on the Environment Impact Assessment of these various projects and retrofitting might be advised in case of adverse environmental impact.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)- Opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and entering into force in December 1993, the Convention on Biological Diversity is an international treaty for the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of the components of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources. With 194 Parties, the Convention has near universal participation among countries. The Convention seeks to address all threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services, including threats from climate change, through scientific assessments, the development of tools, incentives and processes, the transfer of technologies and good practices and the full and active involvement of relevant stakeholders including indigenous and local communities, youth, NGOs, women and the business community. The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is a subsidiary agreement to the Convention. It seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology. To date, 159 countries plus the European Union have ratified the Cartagena Protocol.