"TRIPS Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity should be mutually supportive and promote the sustainable use of resources." Explain.

TRIPS Agreement and Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) 1992 Opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio Delaneiro in 1992, and entering into force in December 1993, the Convention on Biological Diversity is an international treaty for the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of the components of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources. The interface between biodiversity and intellectual property is shaped at the international level by several treaties and process, including at the WIPO, and the TRIPS Council of the WTO. With 193 Parties, the Convention has universal participation among countries. The Convention seeks to address all threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services, including threats from climate change, through scientific assessments, the development of tools, incentives and processes, the transfer of technologies and good practices and the full and active involvement of relevant stakeholders including indigenous and local communities, youth, NGOs, women and the business community. The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is a subsidiary agreement to the Convention. It seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology. The treaty defines biodiversity as "the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, 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." The Convention reaffirms the principle of state sovereignty, which grants states sovereign rights to exploit their resources pursuant to their own environmental policies together with the responsibility to ensure that activities within their own jurisdiction or control do not cause damage to the environment of other states. The Biodiversity Convention also provides a general legal framework regulating access to biological resources and the sharing of benefits arising from their use. India is a party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (1992). The Convention on Biological Diversity establishes important principles regarding the protection of biodiversity while recognizing the vast commercial value of the planet's store of germplasm. However, the expansion of international trade agreements establishing a global regime of intellectual property rights creates incentives that may destroy biodiversity, while undercutting social and economic development opportunities as well as cultural diversity. The member countries were pressurized to change their IPR laws to conform to the TRIPS agreement. India also followed the suit by placing in place legal frameworks for the management of biodiversity and Intellectual property laws. Following India's ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at international level, the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 was adopted. The Biological Diversity Act aims at conservation of biological resources and associated knowledge as well as facilitating access to them in a sustainable manner and through a just process. While the TRIPS and the CBD both attempt to legislate some form of intellectual property and technology transfer, the Agreement appear to provide contradictory prescriptions for the control over genetic control over generic resources and biodiversity. The two Agreements embody and promote conflicting objectives, systems of right and obligations. The core issues is that, in the area of patentable subject matter, benefit sharing, protection of local knowledge, requirements of prior informed consent and role of state. Major tension between the CBD and the TRIPS is related to the case of National Sovereignty and the Rights of IPR Holders. Through the CBD, countries have the right to regulate access of foreigners to biological resources and knowledge and to determine benefit sharing arrangements. The TRIPS enable persons or institutions to patent a country's biological resources in countries outside country of origin of the resources or knowledge. In this manner TRIPS facilitates the conditions for misappropriation of ownership or rights over living organisms, knowledge and processes on the use of biodiversity. The sovereignty of developing countries over their resources and over their right to exploit or use their resources as well as to determine access and benefit sharing arrangements are compromised. The patent confers exclusive rights on its owner to prevent third parties for making, using offering for sale, selling or importing the patent product and to prevent third parties from using the patent process. This makes it an offence for others to do so, except with the owner's permission, which is usually given only on license or payment royalty.