Biodiversity Conservation

Conservation of Biodiversity has been put to the highest priority in the world. The initiative for biodiversity assessment was taken in 1991 with the United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP). Biodiversity Country Studies Project implemented in cooperation from donor countries and United Nation Development Programme (UNDP). The approach to study biodiversity from the level of the gene to ecosystem was initiated as a research agenda for biodiversity under International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS)/ SCOPE/ United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Paris (Solbrig 1991). The worldwide Man and Biosphere programme launched in 1971 calls for international scientific cooperation for nature conservation. Subsequently,

2001). Jayakumar et al (2002) had carried out the study on identification of forests that were degraded in Kolli hills, Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu. Reddy et al (2007) had assessed the change in forest cover and disturbance patterns in R.V.Nagar range of Eastern Ghats region. Reddy et al (2008) have identified the large-scale deforestation in nawarangpur district of Orissa. Reddy et al. (2012) has brought out the spatiotemporal changes in forest cover and variation in forest types and calculated the net forest cover decline and mean annual rate of deforestation during the last 75 years period 1935 to 2010 in the state of Odisha (Orissa). Reddy et al (2013) had reviewed the gross and net rate of deforestation in various parts of India. Krishna et al (2014) had quantified the changes in forest cover and mapped the patterns of deforestation in Andhra Pradesh using historical remote sensing data. Reddy et al (2014) had evaluated the long-term changes in forest cover with its spatial pattern over time using a set of topographical maps and satellite remote sensing datasets in the Eastern Ghats. Reddy et al (2014) had assessed the threat status of biodiversity from species to ecosystem level by assigning the priority as critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable, near threatened and least concern classes in forest ecosystems of Odisha. Reddy et al (2015) provided nationwide comprehensive data for understanding chronological long-term forest cover changes in India over last eight decades. The study by Reddy et al (2016) had emphasised and reported an account of the extent, distribution and forest loss in the whole of the Western Ghats from 1920 to 2013. Reddy et al (2016) had done a statistical Hotspot analysis and spatial landscape model for delineating deforestation and degradation hotspots in Andhra