indian bidiversity class for educational purpose

1. INDIAN BIODIVERSITY
ACT 2002
KESHARI PRASAD MOHANTY
MSc. Botany (Biosystematics)
MSCBU, Baripada

2. Indian Biodiversity Act, 2002
The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 is an Act enacted by the Parliament of India for the
preservation of biological diversity in India, and provides mechanism for equitable sharing
of benefits arising out of the use of traditional biological resources and knowledge.
The Act was enacted to meet the obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD), because India is a party of the convention.
 Biodiversity: The biodiversity means the variability among living organisms from all
sources and the ecological complexes of which they are part and includes diversity within
species or between species and of ecosystems
 Biological Resources: The biological resources means plants, animals and micro-
organisms or parts thereof, their genetic material and by-products (excluding value added
products) with actual or potential use or value, but does not include human genetic
material.

3. Objectives
The Biological Diversity Act 2002 is a law meant to achieve
three main objectives:
1. The conservation of biodiversity.
2. The sustainable use of biological resources.
3. Equity in sharing benefits from such use of resources.

4. Salient Features of the Act
The salient features of the act are to:

5.  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.
 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)

6.  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
 The act stipulates all offences under it as cognizable and non-bailable.
 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).

7. Exemptions from the Act
 The Act excludes Indian biological resources that are normally traded as
commodities.
 Such exemption holds only so far the biological resources are used as
commodities and for no other purpose.
 The act also excludes traditional uses of Indian biological resources and
associated knowledge and when they are used in collaborative research
projects between Indian and foreign institutions with the approval of the
central government.
 Uses by cultivators and breeds, e.g. farmers, livestock keepers and bee
keepers and traditional healers e.g.vaidyas and hakims are also exempted.

8. What is covered by the Biological Diversity Act?

9. The National Biodiversity Authority
 The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) was established in 2003 by the Central
Government to implement India’s Biological Diversity Act (2002).
 It is a Statutory body that performs facilitative, regulatory and advisory functions for the
Government of India on the issue of Conservation and sustainable use of biological
resources.
 The NBA has its Headquarters in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.
Structure of the NBA
 The National Biodiversity Authority consists of the following members to be appointed by
the central government, namely:
 A Chairperson.
 Three ex officio members, one representing the Ministry dealing with Tribal Affairs and
two representing the Ministry dealing with Environment and Forests.
 Seven ex-officio members to represent respectively the Ministries of the Central
Government dealing with:

10. • Agricultural Research and Education
• Biotechnology
• Ocean Development
• Agriculture and Cooperation
• Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy
• Science and Technology
• Scientific and Industrial Research;
 Five non-official members to be appointed from amongst specialists and scientists having special
knowledge and experience in the required matters.
 Creating an enabling environment, as appropriate, to promote conservation and sustainable use of
biodiversity.
 Advising the central government, regulating activities and issuing guidelines for access to
biological resources and for fair and equitable benefit sharing in accordance with the Biological
Diversity Act, 2002.
 Taking necessary measures to oppose the grant of intellectual property rights in any country
outside India on any biological resource obtained from India or knowledge associated with such
biological resources derived from India illegally.
 Advising the State Governments in the selection of areas of biodiversity importance to be notified as
heritage sites and suggest measures for their management.
Functions of the NBA

11. State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs)
 The SBBs are established by the State Governments in accordance with Section 22 of
the Act.
 Structure: The State Biodiversity Board consists of the following members:
 A Chairperson
 Not more than five ex officio members to represent the concerned Departments of
the State Government
 Not more than five members from amongst experts in matters relating to
conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of biological resources and
equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of biological resources.
 All the members of the SBB are appointed by the respective State Governments.
Functions of SBBs
 Advise the State Government, subject to any guidelines issued by the Central
Government, on matters relating to the conservation, sustainable use or sharing equitable
benefits.
 Regulate by granting approvals or otherwise requests for commercial utilisation or bio-

12. 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
Structure
 It shall consist of a chair person and not more than six persons nominated by the local body.
 Out of total members of a BMC, not less than one third should be women and not less
than 18% should belong to the Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes.
 The Chairperson of the Biodiversity Management Committee shall be elected from amongst the
members of the committee in a meeting to be chaired by the Chairperson of the local body.
 The chairperson of the local body shall have the casting votes in case of a tie.

13. 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.
People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBR):
 The PBRs focus on participatory documentation of local
biodiversity, traditional knowledge and practices.
 The register shall contain comprehensive information on the availability and
knowledge of local biological resources, their medicinal or any other use or
any other traditional knowledge associated with them.
 They are seen as key legal documents in ascertaining the rights of local people
over the biological resources and associated traditional knowledge.

14. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
• Intellectual Property Rights are the rights awarded by society to individuals or
organizations principally over creative works: inventions, literary and artistic
works and symbols, names, images and designs used in commerce.
• They give the creator the rights to prevent others from making unauthorized use of
their property for a limited period.
• IP is categorized as Industrial Property (functional commercial innovations) and
Artistic and Literary Property (Cultural creations).
• Current technological development are blurring, to some extent, this distinction
and some hybrid sui generis system are emerging.

15. • Patent, Industrial designs, trademarks, geographical indications, trade secret
come under Industrial Property. Copyright and related rights are mainly
artistic and literary property.
• Plant Breeders’ Right (PBR) comes under Sui generis System.
IPR
Industrial Property
Artistic and Literary
property (Copyright)
Patent
Industrial
designs
Trademarks
Geographical
indications

16. Patents:
• Exclusive rights by the government of an country to an Inventors (Products,
Processes, Materials, Compositions)
• Technical solution to a technical problem
Industrial designs:
• External features appearing to the eye
• New Shape, pattern or Configuration.
Trademarks:
• A visual symbol such as a word, Name, Logo, Label, Monograms, Slogan etc.
• Applied on article of Manufacture or Service
• Indicates the origin of goods and services.

17. Geographical Indications (GIs):
• Identifies agricultural, natural or manufactured goods originating from a
definite territory in India
• Possessing special quality or reputation based upon unique characteristics of
the geographical location
Copyrights:
• Artistic, Literary, musical and dramatic creations
• Comes in to existence as soon as the work is created.

18. Plant Breeders Rights (PBRs)
• Plant breeders Rights (PBRs) are rights granted to plant breeders to exclude
others from commercializing material of the plant varieties they have
developed.
• For a plant variety to be eligible for protection through PBRs, it must be clearly
distinguished from other protected varieties, uniform and stable.

19. Traditional Knowledge (TK)
• Traditional Knowledge (TK) or Indigenous Knowledge (IK) refers to the local
knowledge by indigenous people that is unique to a given culture or society.
• It forms the basis on which local decisions on fields such as agriculture, natural
resources management are made.
• Such people depend on specific skills and knowledge that have been influenced
by internal creativity and experimentation for their livelihoods over a long period
of time. While such knowledge is of value to the owners, it is also of value to the
world economy as it forms part of the global knowledge.
• A major distinguishing characteristic of indigenous knowledge is that it is
intergenerational.

20. Biodiversity Related Traditional
Knowledge and IPRs
• Growing demand for the bio-products in the recent decades, commercialization of
the traditional knowledge associated with the bioresources has been on pace all
over the world.
• This has adversely affected the livelihoods of TK holding societies and also
caused serious threat to the biodiversity.
• Hence, a need for the protection of TK and bioresources has been raised and has
become a topic of international debate.

21. The Values and Contributions of
Traditional Knowledge:
• TK is widely known as a valuable attribute of biological diversity and is one of
the important source of sustainable development in most of the developing
countries.
• TK is associated with many field such as agriculture, medicine, art and
architecture, music, folklore, etc. where biological resources are the main
components utilized.
• In the recent decades, there has been an increased demand for the traditional
medicines (TM) all over the world.
• TK has also contributed much to the forest conservation, soil conservation, seed
conservation and crop biodiversity.
• This has led to the sustained food production, crop yields and health care.

22. Threats to TK
Loss of Biodiversity and Traditional Lifestyles:
• In India, a significant part of the land, forests and habitat of tribal people and local
communities is being affected by human activities like deforestation, logging,
road construction and dam projects, mining, urbanization and conversion of
forests to land for agricultural plantation.
• The traditional lifestyles of the indigenous communities have been urbanized with
the migration of large chunk of indigenous and tribal people from rural areas to
the urban areas.
• The impact of modernization on these community have made international
initiatives to protect and conserve biodiversity and knowledge related to the use of
biological resources.

23. Biopiracy
• Genetic materials from plants, animals and other biological resources that have
long been identified and developed are being “owned” by companies and
manufacturers through patents.
• Biopiracy is the illegal appropriation of life, microorganisms, plants and animals
including human and the traditional cultural knowledge that accompanies it.
• It is illegal because, in violation of international conventions and corresponding
domestic laws, it does not recognise, respect or adequately compensate the
rightful owners of the life forms appropriated or the traditional knowledge related
to their propagation, use and commercial benefit.

24. Patenting of Genetically Modified Organisms
(GMOs)
• Sequences from varied sources like bacteria, virus and eukaryotic systems can be
transferred to plants to develop transgenic crop varieties.
• Thus Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) are the creations of modern
biotechnology in which the genetic make up or genotype of an organism is so
engineered by man as to include or exclude certain phenotypes (physical traits or
manifestations) for a desired effect.
• India has established patenting of GMOs especially in agricultural crops. E.g.
transgenic soybeans, basmati rice, maize, insertion of Bt gene into crops for
production of their own insecticide.

25. Linkage among TK, IPR & Biodiversity
• Whether it is plant, animals or microorganisms, it will be useful when uses of the
particular biological resources are known.
• Indigenous people are the source of virtually all our knowledge about the uses of
the plants and animals and even of the microorganisms in their localities.
• This traditional knowledge about the usage of biological resources has been
unethically accessed by many vested interest groups and got protected through
various IPR forms leading to agrobiodiversity loss, genetic erosion, loss of
traditional varieties etc.

26. Benefit Sharing
• The use and economic exploitation of genetic resources and related TK has
brought a wide range of benefits to developing and developed countries alike
including economic benefits.
• The main challenge to be confronted in implementing the ABS (Access &
Benefit Sharing) principles under the CBD is to determine how the benefits (in
terms of sharing research results, capacity building, monetary income, IPRs
etc.) are to be effectively shared among users and provides of these materials.
• Benefit sharing mechanism must be properly devised, which should reward
the conservers of genetic resources.
• In respect of intellectual property, the Convention states that access and
transfer of genetic resources should be consistent with the ‘adequate and
effective protection of IPRs’ and access to genetic resources takes place on
mutually agreed terms.

27. Biodiversity conservation policy decision in India
• Many good practices initiatives taken by the Ministry of Environment & Forests
including some developmental schemes for supplementary and alternative
livelihood support and creation of minor infrastructure by way of paths and roads,
jetties, drinking water, medical and health, irrigation facilities etc.
• To address conservation and management of biodiversity, various policy legal and
administrative measures are taken by Indian Govt. as there is need for promoting
greater harmony and synergy in these measures. Another major identified gap is
lack of effective enforcement of existing laws.
• Thus, various progressive legislation has implemented to address the lacunae in
several aspects relating to conservation and management of biodiversity and
associated traditional knowledge.

28. Biodiversity Policy for Management
• Most important legal frameworks for Biodiversity management are:
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992.
The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
in 1994.
Union Internationale Pour la Protection Des Obtentions Vegetables (UPOV-
International Convention for the protection Of New Varieties of Plants, 1961)
The Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of the Micro-
Organisms for the Purpose of Patent Procedures, 1980.

29. Indian Initiatives for Protection
• To conserve the biodiversity and counter the problem of biopiracy, India made a
maiden effort in the world by enacting the following three legislations in the
Parliament:
a. The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Right Act,2001
b. The Biological Diversity Act, 2002
c. The Patents Amendment Act, 2005

30. CONCLUSION
There is a strong need for protecting and promoting the traditional knowledge
related to biodiversity
Setting up or promoting medicinal herbal gardens of traditional medicinal plants
Ensuring adequate income to the community healer experts on traditional
knowledge
Incorporating traditional knowledge as part of the curriculum for schools, colleges,
Universities and research centres
Enhancing traditional medicines and healing arts in state run hospitals
Establishing agricultural research programmes, centres for ex-situ and in-situ
conservation of plant varieties and plant genetic resources.

31. Thank
You