Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECM)

An OECM is a conservation category recognised under the Convention on Biological Diversity for sites that deliver real, lasting biodiversity outcomes without being formally notified as a National Park, Wildlife Sanctuary or equivalent protected area. Crucially, conservation need not be the primary management objective of the site, a sacred grove exists for religious reasons and a defence establishment for security, but the biodiversity outcome achieved must be actual and sustained, not merely incidental or accidental. In India, candidate OECMs include sacred groves (roughly 14,000 documented, with expert estimates running to 100,000-150,000), van panchayat forests in Uttarakhand (11,217 panchayats managing 4.52 lakh hectares), identified elephant corridors, community-managed wetlands and coastal commons, and institutional lands such as defence campuses. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the National Biodiversity Authority, with UNDP support, produced India's 'Compendium of OECMs' and identification criteria in 2022, but India has not yet formally reported any OECM to the World Database on OECMs, unlike 17 of 196 CBD parties that have. The category matters because India's formal protected-area network covers only about 5.32 per cent of its geographical area (1,014 protected areas under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972), far short of the 30 per cent terrestrial and marine conservation target set by Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework for 2030. OECMs also address landscape connectivity, since species persistence depends on habitat linkage between reserves, not merely the size or quality of management within any single protected island.

• 1 OECM = area outside a protected area achieving sustained, effective in-situ biodiversity conservation; the management objective need not be conservation, but the outcome must be real.
• 2 India's formal protected areas cover about 5.32 per cent of its land (1,014 PAs: 106 National Parks, 573 Wildlife Sanctuaries, 115 Conservation Reserves, 220 Community Reserves).
• 3 Kunming-Montreal GBF Target 3 (30x30): conserve at least 30 per cent of terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine areas by 2030.
• 4 Conservation Reserves and Community Reserves were added to the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 by the 2002 amendment (Chapter IV-A) as an earlier step toward conservation outside strict protected areas.
• 5 India's OECM candidate sites: ~14,000 documented sacred groves, 11,217 Uttarakhand van panchayat forests (4.52 lakh hectares), 150 identified elephant corridors across 15 states.
• 6 MoEFCC and the National Biodiversity Authority produced India's OECM identification criteria and compendium in 2022, but India has not yet reported any site to the World Database on OECMs.
• 7 Globally, about 7,500 sites covering 1.3 per cent of Earth's surface are logged as OECMs, reported by only 17 of 196 CBD parties.
• 8 OECM recognition does not change land ownership or primary use, unlike protected-area declaration, which often involves displacement and conflict with Forest Rights Act, 2006 claims.

A sacred grove protected for generations by community religious sanction, or a Uttarakhand van panchayat forest managed under village-level rules, could be formally recognised as an OECM without changing who owns or manages it, bringing India closer to the 30x30 target while respecting existing community governance.