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The National Biodiversity Authority has disbursed Rs 5.68 crore under the Access and Benefit-Sharing mechanism of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.
The money went to State Biodiversity Boards, Union Territory Biodiversity Councils and one national research institution, mainly against access to okra, cucumber and watermelon.
The single largest component, Rs 3.51 crore, relates to okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) — 139 varieties and 28 hybrids — and was shared among 32 State Boards and UT Councils.
Because the resources were bought from markets and traders and could not be traced to particular communities, the Authority approved distribution among all States and UTs where the crop is grown.
Total ABS funds disbursed by the NBA have now crossed Rs 191 crore.
ABS rests on a simple proposition: a country's biological resources and the traditional knowledge attached to them are sovereign property, so anyone who commercialises them must obtain prior approval and share the resulting benefits with the country and the communities that conserved them. In India the mechanism is statutory. A company seeking access applies to the National Biodiversity Authority (or, for Indian entities, gives prior intimation to the State Biodiversity Board), and an ABS payment is determined and later distributed. The tricky part is identifying the beneficiary. Where a resource is collected from a specific forest or village, the money can go to the Biodiversity Management Committee there. But where a seed company sources okra or watermelon from open markets and traders — as in this case — there is no traceable community or geography. The Authority's Expert Committee therefore recommended, and the Authority approved, distribution of the benefit share among all States and Union Territories where the crop is cultivated. That is why 32 State Boards and Councils appear on a single okra payment.
Simple Analogy: It is a royalty on nature: whoever profits from a biological resource pays a share back, and when the original owner cannot be traced, the royalty is spread across everywhere the crop grows.
India's implementing legislation for the Convention on Biological Diversity. It creates a three-tier structure — the National Biodiversity Authority at the Centre, State Biodiversity Boards in the States and Biodiversity Management Committees at panchayat and municipality level — and governs access to biological resources and benefit sharing. Section 32 governs how funds received by a State Biodiversity Board are to be used.
Notified on 3 August 2023. It eased procedures for Indian entities and for the AYUSH sector, encouraged Indian intellectual property, and decriminalised offences under the parent Act, replacing imprisonment with monetary penalties.
Adopted on 5 June 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit and in force from 29 December 1993; its three objectives are conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources — the third being the source of ABS.
A supplementary agreement to the CBD, adopted on 29 October 2010 at Nagoya, Japan, and in force from 12 October 2014. It gives the ABS obligation operational teeth internationally and shaped India's own ABS Guidelines.
Statutory authority regulating access to India's biological resources by foreign and specified entities, determining benefit sharing, and advising the Central Government; established under Section 8 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002
Regulate access by Indian entities within the State on prior intimation, advise the State Government, and receive and apply ABS funds under Section 32
Constituted by local bodies — panchayats and municipalities — to conserve local biodiversity and, crucially, to prepare and maintain the People's Biodiversity Register documenting local resources and associated traditional knowledge
Hosts the National Culture Collection of Industrial Microorganisms, which received a separate ABS disbursement for repository maintenance, bio-survey, taxonomy capacity building and in-situ and ex-situ conservation
India's ABS regime grew out of the neem, turmeric and Basmati patent disputes, which also produced the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library — the defensive counterpart to ABS.
It runs a parallel benefit-sharing and Gene Fund mechanism for registered plant varieties, and examiners like to test the distinction between that Act's authority and the NBA.
Adopted under the CBD, it carries targets on benefit sharing from genetic resources and digital sequence information, the current frontier of the ABS debate.
Declared by State Governments in consultation with local bodies under the Biological Diversity Act; strengthening them is one of the permitted uses of the funds released here.
GS Paper 3 > Environment > Conservation, biodiversity and environmental legislation
General Awareness > Environment and Institutions
General Awareness > Environment
Which of the following statements is/are correct? Proper design and effective implementation of UN-REDD+ Programme can significantly contribute to 1. protection of biodiversity 2. resilience of forest ecosystems 3. poverty reduction Select the correct answer using the code given below.
Answer: 1, 2 and 3
Consider the following statements: 1. Most of the world's coral reefs are in tropical waters. 2. More than one-third of the world's coral reefs are located in the territories of Australia, Indonesia and Philippines. 3. Coral reefs host far more number of animal phyla than those hosted by tropical rainforests. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: 1, 2 and 3
Which one of the following National Parks lies completely in the temperate alpine zone?
Answer: Valley of Flowers National Park
The "Miyawaki method" is well known for the:
Answer: Creation of mini forests in urban areas
The Biological Diversity Act, the NBA and the Nagoya Protocol are recurring Prelims topics, and ABS has appeared whenever a benefit-sharing dispute makes news.
The requirement that anyone commercially using a biological resource share the benefits with the country and communities that conserved it.
A local record of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge, prepared and maintained by the Biodiversity Management Committee.
An area of rich biodiversity notified by a State Government under the Biological Diversity Act in consultation with local bodies.
The botanical name of okra (bhindi), the crop behind the largest single ABS component in this disbursement.
Conservation outside a species' natural habitat — in gene banks, culture collections, botanical gardens or zoos — as opposed to in-situ conservation in the wild.