UPSC Prelims PYQ 2023: Biodiversity Management Committees and Nagoya Protocol

Consider the following statements:

In India, the Biodiversity Management Committees are key to the realization of the objectives of the Nagoya Protocol.
The Biodiversity Management Committees have important functions in determining access and benefit sharing, including the power to levy collection fees on the access of biological resources within its jurisdiction.

Biological Diversity Act, 2002 was enacted in response to India’s commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD),1992.
Aims of BDA 2002:
- To protect India’s rich biodiversity and associated knowledge
- To promote sustainable use of India’s biodiversity
- To regulate the biological resources to ensure equitable sharing and check biopiracy.

BDA 2002 established a three-tier structure to regulate access to India’s biodiversity and associated knowledge:
- National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) at the national level
- State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) at the state level
- Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) at the local level
Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) is 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 negotiated within the CBD.

CBD is a multilateral treaty adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
The treaty that entered into effect in 1993 is legally binding.
195 UN states and the European Union are parties to the convention; India is a party to it.
The Convention has three main goals:
- Conservation of biological diversity (or biodiversity)
- Sustainable use of its components
- Fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources
To achieve these goals, there is general agreement on three things:
- Indiscriminate use of biological resources needs to be halted
- Sustainable use of these resources needs to be regulated
- People and communities helping to protect these resources need to be rewarded
Under CBD, two protocols have been adopted:
1. Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (2003)
2. Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing (2014)