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From Paper to Practice
While Madhya Pradesh is an acknowledged leader in implementing the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, operationalising the local-level biodiversity management committees is a continuous challenge. The state’s multipronged approach with a focus on bio-fi nance, regulatory fl exibility, convergence with other government schemes, and enabling policy environment holds the key to building empowered, Atmanirbhar biodiversity management committees.
The biodiversity management committees (BMCs) have been constituted in local bodies across the length and breadth of the country under the provisions of the national Biological Diversity Act, 20021 and relevant state rules enacted under it. The act gives effect to India’s commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of 1992 to which it is a party, and the act’s objectives mirror the three goals of the CBD, namely the conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the use of biological resources and associated knowledge.
While primarily responsible for the preparation of peoples’ biodiversity registers (PBRs) containing comprehensive knowledge on the availability and knowledge of local biological resources, their medicinal, or any other use or associated traditional knowledge, the BMCs also have important functions in determining access and benefit-sharing (ABS), including the power to levy collection fees on the access of biological resources within its jurisdiction. BMCs are, thus, key to the realisation of the objectives of the Nagoya Protocol (2010), negotiated within the CBD, enjoining parties to take measures to ensure that benefits from the utilisation of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge accrue to indigenous and local communities on mutually agreed terms.
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