There are millions of species across the world and India has tremendous varieties of species including plants, animals and biological genetic resources that could be potentially useful to Humans. Significant potential be
CS Professional · Intellectual Property Rights - Laws and Practices · PYQS · June 2025
There are millions of species across the world and India has tremendous varieties of species including plants, animals and biological genetic resources that could be potentially useful to Humans. Significant potential benefits can be obtained by accessing these genetic resources by making use of them. Genetic resources historically formed part of common heritage of mankind (hereinafter referred to as CHM) and were treated as belonging to global commons. The countries that were rich in biological resources were not able to fully utilize and benefit from their biological resources consisting of species, crops and plant varieties like rubber, cocoa, quinine etc. as they were being rampantly smuggled abroad. Due to technological innovation and development, a large number of industries started evolving the use of genetic resources and have become active in bioprospecting i.e. "the collection and exploration of biological resources for commercial purposes. Most well-known industries actively indulging in bioprospecting are pharmaceutical and agricultural industries which are involved in the fields of cosmetics, biotechnology, personal care, botanical medicine, horticulture, crop protection etc. In the above context, biopiracy emerged as a defining context for the corporations and the industrialized countries who were claiming ownership, taking advantage of the genetic resources and Traditional Knowledge that existed in the developing countries. The term biopiracy is referred to as "illegal use "or "illegal access" by experts and has been adopted under the Bonn Guidelines. What mechanism is provided under the act for equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of traditional biological resources and knowledge ?
Answer & Explanation:
The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 aims to conserve India's biological diversity, promote sustainable use of its components, and ensure fair sharing of benefits arising from biological resources. It primarily addresses the issues concerning access to genetic resources and associated knowledge by foreign individuals, institutions or companies, and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of these resources and associated knowledge by the country and its people. The Act governs Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) through a three tier system, National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), State Biodiversity Board (SBB) and Biodiversity Management Committees (BMC). The NBA deals with matters relating to requests for access to bioresources and associated traditional knowledge by foreign individuals, institutions or companies, and all matters relating to transfer of results of research to any foreigner; imposition of terms and conditions to secure equitable sharing of benefits, establish sovereign rights over the bioresources of India and approval for seeking any form of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) in or outside India for an invention based on research or information pertaining to a biological resource and associated traditional knowledge obtained from India. SBBs deal with matters relating to access to bioresources by Indians for commercial purposes and restrict any activity which violates the objectives of conservation, sustainable use and equitable sharing of benefits. The mandate of the BMCs is conservation, sustainable use, documentation of biodiversity and chronicling of knowledge relating to biodiversity. BMCs shall be consulted by the National Biodiversity Authority and State Biodiversity Boards on matters relating to use of biological resources and associated knowledge within their jurisdiction. In order to safeguard the interests of the local people and to allow research by Indian citizens within the country, free access to biological resources for use within India for any purpose other than commercial use for Indian people has been given to vaid and hakims (traditional physicians) and other citizens. Provisions for setting up of Biodiversity Funds at Central, State and Local levels are provided (Sections 27, 32 and 42) in the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. The monetary benefits, received as fees and royalties for approvals by National Biodiversity Authority is deposited in National Biodiversity Fund and used for conservation and development of areas from where resources have been accessed.
Topics: Biodiversity
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