Status of Biodiversity Management Committees in Tamil Nadu

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Status of Biodiversity Management Committees in Tamil Nadu

Evidences through Right to Information

Commentary

Vol. 58, Issue No. 1, 07 Jan, 2023

Updated on 11 January 2023

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After the enactment of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, it is mandatory for the local governments to establish biodiversity management committees. In this article, the operationalisation of the Biological Diversity Act in various local governments of Tamil Nadu is analysed.

The authors would like to acknowledge the volunteers of the Institute of Grassroots Governance and Chennai Climate Action Group support to fi le the Right to Information (RTI) for various local governments and a special mention about Kuppubalaji L N for his contribution in drafting the letters for RTI. They appreciate the efforts of R Anitha. They would also like to acknowledge the reviewer of EPW for their suggestions.

According to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), “biological diversity” means the variability among living organisms from all sources, including, among other things 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 terms biological diversity and biodiversity are used interchangeably.

The three types of biodiversity include genetic diversity, species diversity, and ecosystem diversity. India is among the 196 countries that signed the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in Rio de Janeiro on 5 June 1992 and it came into force on 29 December 1993 (Meenakumari and Rana 2017). The convention reaffirms the sovereign rights of the states over their biological resources and also the main objective of conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components, and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilisation of genetic resources. Accordingly, the Biological Diversity Act (henceforth the act), 2002 was enacted on 5 February 2003 and then the Biological Diversity Rules, 2004 had been prepared that came into effect from 15 April 2004.