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Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) Sustainable Development and India Although India has traditional institutions, practicing Sustainable Development, the Rio Summit 1992 and WSSD 2002 commitments have changed our policy and plan. A. number of Sustainable Development initiatives have taken place in all government sectors of India. The National Conservation Strategy (NCS) formulated in 1990 has six primary principles to achieve the sustainable development (SD), they are; Stabilization of population growth, Integrated land use and water management, Conservation of biological diversity, Sustainable energy and resource utilization, Pollution control, and Improvement of human habitats. Followed by NCS, Environmental Action Program (EAP) and National Forestry Action Plan (NFAP) were formulated towards the objective of Sustainable Development of India. Three important government contributions to environment and sustainable development over the past one and half decades are summarized below:
Exchange of information for sustainable development is one among the commitments to all signatories of Earth Summit (Agenda 21, Chapter 40). The Sustainable Development Network Program (SDNP) is the essential tool for better decision-making at all levels. SDNP have the following objectives ;
In total SDNP is more than an information network, which has the capacity to foster informed dialogue and communications to encourage and empower stakeholders, who are most influenced and focused by it.
UNDP supports 40 National Agencies and provided seed-fund for establishment of the network and at present they are all under INFOTERRA(Global Environmental Information Exchange Network) umbrella. In India, Ministry of Environment and Forests has established Environmental Information System (ENVIS). This ENVIS network and resources have been used for SDNP network.
Sustainable Development Networking Program (SDNP), India The Environmental Action Program (EAP) was implemented to strengthen the environmental services in India for integrating environment in all developmental program through improving environment assessment, and environmental awareness. ERNET and TELNET are the supportive networks involved in developing and educating electronic information exchange. The Ministry of Environment and Forests(MOEF) is the nodal agency for monitoring and management of the environment and sustainable development. The Indian Chapter of SDNP is being implemented by the Environmental Information System (ENVIS), MoEF in collaboration with India-Canada Environment Facility (ICEF). The activities of the MoEF are natural resources survey, conservation of natural resources, EIA's, pollution control, environment research, environment education, environmental information (El), legislation, institutional support, ministerial coordination and international cooperation. MOEF has established Environmental Information System Centers (ENVIS) at various thematic areas in various institutes of India. Followed by the commitment to UNDP, SDNP has been functioning from 1999 under the direction of the EI Division of MoEF. Due to the management constraints, SDNP program activities were stopped for a while. India-Canada Environmental Facility (ICEF), New Delhi, has sanctioned the project on SDNP -ENVIS for two years from June 2005. EI Division of Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India is the executing agency of this program and the Institute for Ocean Management, Anna University is the coordinating agency of this program. Twenty thematic areas are selected for this project and the relevant ENVIS centers have been supported for developing the SDNP network. SDNP's twenty thematic areas and the respective ENVIS centers where it is located are shown in the table.
The ENVIS Centre, MoEF in collaboration with the Indo-Canadian Environment Facility (ICEF) has initiated a Sustainable Development Network Partner (SDNP) initiative. Twenty prominent institutions have been identified as partners in the project (July, 2005 to March, 2007). The Institute of Ocean Management (IOM), Anna University will coordinate this project. Wildlife Institute of India is nominated as one of the ENVIS-SDNP Partner Centre for the thematic area "Protected Area Management"
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