Other Effective Area-based
Conservation Measures
OECMs

Be a Biodiversity Champion & tag a landscape as an OECM!
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What are OECMs?

'Other effective area-based conservation measures' (OECMs) are a new conservation approach, separate from protected areas, where effective in-situ conservation of biodiversity is achieved mainly as a by-product of other management.

Sh. Narendra Modi

Hon'ble Prime Minister of India

Sh. Bhupender Yadav

Hon’ble Minister for Environment, Forest & Climate Change

Sh. Ashwini Kumar Choubey

Hon’ble Minister of State for Environment, Forest & Climate Change

For conserving at least 30% of our planet by the year 2030 to halt biodiversity loss and the degradation of important ecosystem services and move towards a nature positive future, the world needs to double current land protections and more than quadruple current ocean protections.

One effective way of conserving our rich biodiversity is through declaration of Protected Areas, where natural resource exploitation and human activities are legally controlled and limited. However, many areas outside the protected area and forest networks also contribute to the effective in-situ conservation of biodiversity. This is where OECMs come in.

Underlining its commitment to achieving global targets related to the conservation of biodiversity and associated ecosystem services, India recently achieved the global Aichi Biodiversity Target of 17 percent of terrestrial area-based conservation. In the same streak, the country aspires to contribute to the upcoming Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) targets as well as the latest global 30x30 movement through a well-connected network of Protected Areas and OECMs.

India is dotted with a range of conservation efforts, other than protected areas that have the potential to become OECMs! The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), National Biodiversity Authority of India (NBA) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) along with other partners are in the process of identifying, mapping and documenting OECMs in India.

Do you want to become a biodiversity champion & tag a landscape as OECM?

The MoEFCC, NBA and UNDP invite central and state departments, bilateral and multilateral funding agencies, civil society organisations, defense establishments, industry, academic and research institutes, and local communities to apply for the OECM tag by sharing information on local conservation initiatives.