Consider the following statements:
1. In India, the Biodiversity Management Committees are key to the realization of the objectives of the Nagoya Protocol.
2. 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.
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
17. Ans: c
Explanation:
The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity is an international agreement which aims at sharing the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources in a fair and equitable way. It entered into force on 12 October 2014
The primary responsibility of BMCs is 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.
The enjoining parties have 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.
Hence Statement 1 is correct.
Section 41 of Biological Diversity Act 2002- Constitution of Biodiversity Management Committee-
(1) Every local body shall constitute a Biodiversity Management Committee within its area for the purpose of promoting conservation, sustainable use and documentation of biological diversity including preservation of habitats, conservation of land races, folk varieties and cultivars, domesticated stocks and breeds of animals and microorganisms and chronicling of knowledge relating to biological diversity.
(2) The National Biodiversity Authority and the State Biodiversity Boards shall consult the Biodiversity Management Committees while taking any decision relating to the use of biological resources and knowledge associated with resources occurring within the territorial jurisdiction of the Biodiversity Management Committee.
(3) The Biodiversity Management Committees may levy charges by way of collection fees from any person for accessing or collecting any biological resource for commercial purposes from areas falling within its territorial jurisdiction.
Hence Statement 2 is correct.
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