Chandigarh, Sept. 7 -- The 16th National Meet of State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) and Union Territory Biodiversity Councils (UTBCs) began in Chandigarh on Sunday, bringing together senior officials, experts, scientists and representatives of biodiversity bodies from across the country to deliberate on strengthening biodiversity governance at the state and local levels. Organised by the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), the two-day meet will focus on implementation of the biodiversity governance framework, functioning of biodiversity management committees (BMCs), people's biodiversity registers (PBRs), access and benefit sharing (ABS), capacity-building and conservation of ecosystems and traditional knowledge. The inaugural session was attended by Punjab governor and UT administrator Gulab Chand Kataria, Union environment, forest and climate change minister Bhupender Yadav and Haryana Environment, Forest and Wildlife minister Rao Narbir Singh, besides senior officials of the Chandigarh administration, state biodiversity boards and UT biodiversity councils. Addressing the gathering, Yadav called for making more than 2.7 lakh biodiversity management committees across the country functional and effective. He said PBRs should move beyond being repositories of information. "People's biodiversity registers should evolve into dynamic planning instruments for local bodies, enabling information on local biodiversity and associated traditional knowledge to contribute meaningfully to local planning and sustainable development," he said. Yadav also urged states and UTs to align their rules, institutional mechanisms and implementation processes with the amended national biodiversity governance framework. Kataria, who inaugurated the meet, said ecological security was closely linked to food and water security, livelihoods and sustainable development. Rao Narbir Singh highlighted Haryana's efforts in biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration. He stressed the role of BMCs in protecting local biodiversity and called for greater training and capacity-building of BMCs and communities....