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The 16th National Meet of State Biodiversity Boards and Union Territory Biodiversity Councils, organised by the National Biodiversity Authority, was held at Chandigarh on 6-7 September 2026.
States and UTs were asked to align their rules, institutional mechanisms and implementation processes with the framework as amended by the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Act, 2023 and the Biological Diversity Rules, 2024.
The Union Environment Minister called for making the country's more than 2.76 lakh Biodiversity Management Committees functional and for People's Biodiversity Registers to become dynamic local planning instruments.
The NBA has shared over Rs 200 crore of Access and Benefit Sharing funds with farmers, local communities, BMCs, State Biodiversity Boards, UT Biodiversity Councils and research institutions.
India has submitted its 7th National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity and its 1st National Report on the Nagoya Protocol, and its updated NBSAP 2024-2030 is aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
India's implementing legislation for the Convention on Biological Diversity, built on three objectives — conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of its components, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of biological resources. It created the NBA, the State Biodiversity Boards and the Biodiversity Management Committees.
Notified on 3 August 2023 and in force from 1 April 2024. It eased compliance for Indian entities including registered AYUSH practitioners and cultivated medicinal plants, encouraged Indian investment in biological resource research, and decriminalised offences under the Act by replacing imprisonment with monetary penalties.
Notified in October 2024, replacing the 2004 Rules; they supply the procedures, fee structures and digitised systems through which the amended Act works. This is the instrument States and UTs were asked to align their own rules and processes with.
A supplementary agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity, adopted at COP10 in Nagoya, Japan in 2010 and in force since 12 October 2014. It governs access to genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge and the sharing of benefits from their use — the international basis of India's ABS mechanism.
Statutory autonomous body established on 1 October 2003 under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 to regulate access to India's biological resources by foreign entities, advise the Central Government, and oversee benefit sharing. It organised this National Meet.
The State-level tier, which regulates access by Indian entities for commercial use of biological resources within the State and advises the State Government. Their chairpersons and member secretaries are the participants at this National Meet.
The local tier, constituted by every local body — panchayat and municipality — to promote conservation, sustainable use and documentation of local biodiversity. More than 2.76 lakh have been constituted; their central instrument is the People's Biodiversity Register.
A PBR is a BMC-maintained record of local biological resources, their uses and the traditional knowledge attached to them. ABS is the rule that anyone commercially using such a resource or knowledge must share a portion of the resulting benefit with the community that conserved it — the PBR is the document that establishes who that community is.
Mission LiFE, Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam, Amrit Sarovar and the Green Credit Programme were named as the broader policy setting for biodiversity work.
The 1992 Rio treaty from which the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, the Nagoya Protocol and the NBSAP all descend; India reports to it periodically, most recently in its 7th National Report.
The Governor's emphasis on combining traditional knowledge and community participation with contemporary approaches is what the PBR is designed to formalise — otherwise community knowledge has no legal record when a benefit claim arises.
GS Paper 3 > Environment > Conservation, Biodiversity and International Conventions
General Awareness > Environment and Statutory Bodies
Consider the following statements: 1. In India, the Biodiversity Management Committees are key to the realization of the objectives of the Nagoya Protocol. 2. The Biodiversity Management Committees have important functions in determining access and benefit sharing, including the power to levy collection fees on the access of biological resources within its jurisdiction. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: Both 1 and 2
With reference to 'Global Environment Facility', which of the following statements is/are correct?
Answer: It serves as financial mechanism for 'Convention on Biological Diversity' and 'United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change'
Biological Diversity Act institutions have appeared repeatedly in UPSC Prelims, including a 2023 question on Biodiversity Management Committees and the Nagoya Protocol.
The requirement that benefits from commercial or research use of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge be shared fairly with the conserving community.
The BMC-maintained local record of biological resources, their uses and associated traditional knowledge.
Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework — effective conservation of at least 30 per cent of land, inland waters and marine areas by 2030.
NBA at the national level, State Biodiversity Boards at State level and Biodiversity Management Committees at local body level, created by the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.