Is India’s biodiversity getting exploited without benefits to communities?

Is India’s biodiversity getting exploited without benefits to communities?

Subject :Environment

Section : Biodiversity  

• Data on the website of the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) shows that as much as 56.1 per cent of applications approved by the Authority under the access and benefit sharing regime since 2006 were between financial years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022.

Access and Benefit Sharing Clearing House (ABSCH)

• The Access and Benefit-sharing Clearing-House (ABS Clearing-House, ABSCH) is a platform for exchanging information on access and benefit-sharing established by Article 14 of the Nagoya Protocol, as part of clearing-house mechanism under Article 18, paragraph 3 of the Convention.
• The ABS Clearing-House is a key tool for facilitating the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol by enhancing legal certainty, clarity and transparency on procedures for access and for monitoring the utilization of genetic resources along the value chain.
• By making relevant information regarding ABS available, the ABS Clearing-House helps users access genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, and providers fairly and equitably share in the benefits arising from their utilization.

Biological Diversity Act 2002

• The act was enacted in 2002, it aims at the conservation of biological resources, managing its sustainable use and enabling fair and equitable sharing benefits arising out of the use and knowledge of biological resources with the local communities.
• India is also one of the early signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity 1992 which recognizes the sovereign rights of states to use their own Biological Resources.

Salient Features of the Act

• The Act prohibits the following activities without the prior approval from the National Biodiversity Authority:
• Any person or organisation (either based in India or not) obtaining any biological resource occurring in India for its research or commercial utilisation.
• The transfer of the results of any research relating to any biological resources occurring in, or obtained from, India.
• The claim of any intellectual property rights on any invention based on the research made on the biological resources obtained from India.
• Any offence under this Act is non-bailable and cognizable
• The act envisaged a three-tier structure to regulate the access to biological resources:
  • The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA)
  • The State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs)
  • The Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) (at local level)
• The Act provides these authorities with special funds and a separate budget in order to carry out any research project dealing with the biological natural resources of the country.
• It shall supervise any use of biological resources and the sustainable use of them and shall take control over the financial investments and their return and dispose of those capitals as correct.
• Under this act, the Central Government in consultation with the NBA:
  • Shall notify threatened species and prohibit or regulate their collection, rehabilitation and conservation
  • Designate institutions as repositories for different categories of biological resources
• Any grievances related to the determination of benefit sharing or order of the National Biodiversity Authority or a State Biodiversity Board under this Act, shall be taken to the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

National Biodiversity Authority

• In order to carry out the provisions of the act, the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) had been set up under the Ministry of Environments and Forest by the Government of India in 2003 to implement India’s Biological Diversity Act (2002).
• The NBA is a statutory, autonomous body headquartered in Chennai.
• State Biodiversity Boards (SBB) were also created in the 29 states along with Biological management committees for each local body.

The functions of the National Biodiversity Authority are as follows

• Monitoring and prevention of actions prohibited under the Act.
• Providing advice to the government on how best to conserve biodiversity in India.
• Prepare a report on how the government can select biological heritage sites.
• Make concrete steps to prevent the grant of intellectual property rights regarding locally used biological resources or allied traditional knowledge.

State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs)

• The SBBs are established by the State Governments in accordance with Section 22 of the Act.

Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs)

• According to Section 41 of the Act, every local body shall constitute the BMC within its area for the purpose of promoting conservation, sustainable use and documentation of biological diversity including:
  • Preservation of habitats
  • Conservation of Landraces
  • Folk varieties and cultivars
  • Domesticated stocks And breeds of animals
  • Microorganisms And Chronicling Of Knowledge Relating To Biological Diversity

Functions

• The main function of the BMC is to prepare People’s Biodiversity Register in consultation with the local people.
• The register shall contain comprehensive information on availability and knowledge of local biological resources, their medicinal or any other use or any other.

Biodiversity Heritage Sites (BHS)

• Under Section 37 of Biological Diversity Act, 2002 the State Government in consultation with local bodies may notify the areas of biodiversity importance as Biodiversity Heritage Sites.
• The Biodiversity Heritage Sites are the well defined areas that are unique, ecologically fragile ecosystems – terrestrial, coastal and inland waters and, marine having rich biodiversity

The Nagoya Protocol

• The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity, also known as the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) is a 2010 supplementary agreement to the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
• Its aim is the implementation of one of the three objectives of the CBD: the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources, thereby contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
• Ratification of the Nagoya Protocol by 51 Partiesincluding India to the CBD is also a major step towards achieving the first of the global Aichi Biodiversity Targets (Target 16 that by 2015, the Nagoya Protocol is in force and operational), and that too more than a year before its target date, which is quite unprecedented.
• The pivotal role played by India in achieving this remarkable feat once again showcases India’s leadership on biodiversity in the global arena.