Biodiversity and Impacts of Climate Change in Home Gardens: Evidence From a Study in West Bengal, India

Background

Biodiversity can augment economic activities related to agriculture, forestry and fisheries. Globally nearly half of the human population are directly dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods, and many of the most vulnerable people depend directly on biodiversity to fulfil their daily subsistence needs. The SDG framework provides a helpful framework to demonstrate the fundamental importance of environmental issues alongside social and economic issues. Importantly, if plant conservation is not achieved, then the achievement of the SDGs is put at risk, suggesting that the integration and mainstreaming of biodiversity conservation, ecological restoration and plant protection in particular is of fundamental importance to the achievement of sustainability within the planetary boundaries. According to Okpaire (2019), Home Gardens provide the eight functions contribution to attaining eight of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These are: (i) generate small but significant stream of income, especially for woman, (ii) supply nutritive food and make food production system more productive and resilient, (iii) improve the health of women of reproductive age and young children give women more choice and control over productive resources, (iv) give women more choice and control over productive resources (iv) spur entrepreneurship, creatively and economic opportunities, particular foe woman, (v) contribute to greening of rural and urban settlements and greater resilience to disasters, (vi) have minimal food losses and help to close nutrient cycles, (vii) strengthen household-level resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters.