Vibha Varshney

1 week ago | downtoearth.org.in | Vibha Varshney

Everyone who thought that the COP16 in Cali, Colombia, would be the game changer on the issue of Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) is in for disappointment. Two meetings held in April prove this. At the CBD or Convention on Biological Diversity’s COP16, a multilateral mechanism for sharing benefits earned from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources was put in place. The Cali Fund was established to receive and disburse funds.

3 weeks ago | downtoearth.org.in | Vibha Varshney

The Parties to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) — also known as the Plant treaty — are gathered in Rome with a controversial agenda on the table. At the thirteenth meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group to Enhance the Functioning of the Multilateral System (MLS), which began on April 1, 2025, Parties will discuss a plan that could dilute the treaty’s benefit-sharing provisions by freeing access to genetic resources.

1 month ago | downtoearth.org.in | Vibha Varshney

There are innumerable reasons to protect forests. Some of them are to do with the fact that local populations depend on forest produce for nutrition. Communities living in the central part of the country, for instance, use flowers of the flame of the forest tree to prepare a cooling beverage that helps them during the summer months. In the hills of Uttarakhand, fronds of a fern are collected for preparing a stir fried sabji.

1 month ago | htsyndication.com | Vibha Varshney

India, March 21 -- There are innumerable reasons to protect forests. Some of them are to do with the fact that local populations depend on forest produce for nutrition. Communities living in the central part of the country, for instance, use flowers of the flame of the forest tree to prepare a cooling beverage that helps them during the summer months. In the hills of Uttarakhand, fronds of a fern are collected for preparing a stir fried sabji.

1 month ago | downtoearth.org.in | Vibha Varshney

A new indicator on Minimum Dietary Diversity has been adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission. This indicator on Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD) would help track progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 2 on zero hunger—one of the 17 goals under the 2030 Agenda. MDD represents the variety of foods that we consume and is important as the quality of our diet is essential for health, growth, development, and well-being.