NBA disburses Rs 2.02 crore Access and Benefit-Sharing funds to States
The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has disbursed Rs 2.02 crore of Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) money, paid by seven seed companies for using crops such as rice, tomato and okra, to 27 States and 3 Union Territories. Where individual benefit claimers could not be identified, shares followed each crop's cultivation area. The top 10 States received Rs 1.43 crore.
Syllabus: Prelims · Environment & Ecology; GS2 · Statutory & Regulatory Bodies; GS3 · Environment & Conservation
Why it matters
Seed companies breed profitable hybrids from crops such as rice and okra that farmers have grown and kept for generations. Access and Benefit-Sharing sends part of the companies' gain back to where such crops are grown. Where the firms bought through markets or traders and individual benefit claimers could not be identified, the money follows each State's cultivation area and goes to State Biodiversity Boards and Union Territory Biodiversity Councils for work such as strengthening local biodiversity committees, updating registers, conserving traditional crop varieties and medicinal plants and restoring habitats. Fair, visible sharing gives villages a reason to keep traditional varieties alive and builds trust in India's biodiversity law, a record the Environment Ministry cites ahead of COP 17.
Prelims pointers
- Biological Diversity Act, 2002: gives effect to the Convention on Biological Diversity in India; three tiers of NBA, State Biodiversity Boards and Biodiversity Management Committees.
- National Biodiversity Authority: statutory body set up in 2003 under the Act, headquartered in Chennai, under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
- NBA approval is needed by foreign persons and entities to obtain biological resources or associated knowledge from India; the NBA also fixes benefit-sharing terms.
- State Biodiversity Boards advise State Governments and regulate commercial use of biological resources by Indian entities, who give them prior intimation.
- Biodiversity Management Committees are set up by every local body; they prepare People's Biodiversity Registers of local resources and knowledge.
- Convention on Biological Diversity (Rio Earth Summit, 1992): three objectives, namely conservation, sustainable use, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits from genetic resources.
- Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit-sharing: adopted at CBD COP 10, Nagoya, Japan, 2010; in force 2014. The Cartagena Protocol (2000) covers biosafety of living modified organisms.
- Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (COP 15, 2022): 23 targets for 2030; Target 13 covers benefit-sharing, Target 19 resource mobilisation.
Practise a UPSC-style question
With reference to the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), consider the following statements:
1. It functions under the administrative control of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
2. It is a statutory body set up under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, with its headquarters in Chennai.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Show the answer
Answer: (b) 2 only
1 is incorrect: the NBA works under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; the Agriculture Ministry only supplied the cultivation statistics used to share this money. 2 is correct: the NBA was set up in 2003 under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, with its seat in Chennai.
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