India

The Ganges River Basin is shared by four countries – Bangladesh, China, India and Nepal – and though it lacks a regional basin-level cooperation agreement to facilitate its joint management and address common challenges such as floods and climate change, there are four bilateral agreements on the Ganges River and its tributaries.

Cranes have coexisted with agriculture for centuries in some regions and may often benefit from cropland or grazing. However, the rapid expansion and intensification of agriculture is leading to severe loss of wetland and grassland habitats important to cranes, thus increasing the conflicts between cranes and farmers. Agriculture has been one of the main drivers behind severe population declines for 11 of 15 species of cranes in the world, and affects all species in one way or another.

This publication offers nature lovers and visitors to tropical Asia an intriguing insight into the natural history of some of the continent's least known and most threatened species. It also reports on the conservation efforts on the ground that are ongoing to preserve these precious forest landscapes and address the threats of the future. 

The assessment includes a global review of literature and legal information on international and national law and policy, a desk assessment of mangrove-related legal instruments in India, Kenya and Mexico, and an in-depth evaluation of effectiveness of mangrove-related law in Costa Rica, Madagascar and Vietnam.

Considering the increasing recognition of the role of benefit sharing in facilitating transboundary water cooperation, the IUCN BRIDGE GBM project is facilitating development of a Transboundary Benefit Sharing Strategy (TBSS) for the Meghna Basin.

Forests throughout India, and the local communities whose livelihoods depend on them, are under great threat from large commerical enterprises.

The protection and revival of degraded and deforested land is the need of the hour. In order to tackle the issues that arise as a consequence of degradation and deforestation, principles of forest landscape restoration are being globally promoted. The Bonn Challenge is a global effort to bring 150 million hectares of deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020 and 350 million hectares by 2030.