India accounts for 7-8 per cent of Earth’s total biodiversity
Conservation of biodiversity - Backgrounder
India has a unique position in the world in so far as it accounts for 7-8 per cent of the earth’s total biodiversity. India is also one of the 18 mega diverse countries, which together possess 60-70 per cent of the world’s biodiversity. These 18 countries – Brazil, China, India, Zaire, Indonesia, Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador, Kenya, Peru, Congo and the Madagascar - rich in biological diversity and associated traditional knowledge have formed a group known as Like Minded Megadiverse Countries (LMMC). India took over the chairmanship of LMMC in February 2004.
"Biological diversity" means the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. Biodiversity is the source of the essential goods and ecological services that constitute the source of life for all and it has direct consumptive value in food, agriculture, medicine, and in industry.
The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) took the landmark step by reaffirming the sovereign rights of states over their biological resources. The CBD is an international legal instrument for promoting conservation and sustainable use of Biological Diversity taking into account “the need to share cost and benefit between developed and developing countries and the ways and means to support innovation by local people”.
The CBD, which came into force on 29th December 2003, thus aims at conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from utilization of biological resources. It has been ratified so far by 188 countries including India.
Among the signatories to the CBD, India is one of the first few countries to have enacted an appropriate comprehensive legislation to achieve the objectives of the convention.
For the conservation of its biodiversity, the important steps taken by India include enactment of the Biological Diversity Act 2002, formation of the Biological Diversity rules, 2004, and notification of main operational sections of the Act. The Biological Diversity Act of 2002 provides necessary statutory and administrative mechanism at the national level to realise the above objective. The main intent of the legislation is to protect India’s rich biodiversity and associated knowledge against their use by foreign individuals and organization without sharing the benefits arising out of such use, and to check bio-piracy.
The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), established at Chennai, is the key mechanism at the national level for implementing the provisions of the Biodiversity Act, 2002. There is provision for a Chairperson, 10, ex-officio Central Government members and 5 non-official specialists and experts. The Chairperson is the Chief Executive of the NBA.
Main functions of the Authority are to lay down procedures and guidelines to govern the activities such as granting permission to foreign companies for obtaining any biological resource and for transferring the results of any research. It advises the Government on specific areas such as notifications of threatened species, designation of institutions as repositories for different categories of biological resources and exemption of certain biological resources, normally traded as commodities. It also encourages setting up State Biodiversity Boards.
The Biological Diversity Act 2002 provides for constitution of State Biodiversity Boards. Their main functions are to regulate requests for utilization of biological resources by Indian nationals, to assist the State Government in notification of areas of biodiversity importance as biodiversity heritage sites and in framing of rules for their management and conservations.
The Act also provides for the constitution of Biodiversity Management Committees (BMC) by local bodies such as Panchayats and Municipalities. Besides a Chairperson, it would have not more than 6 persons nominated by the local body. Their main role is to prepare People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR) in consultation with the local people, which will include comprehensive information on availability of local biological resources and traditional knowledge associated with them.
(Release ID :4475)