Biological Diversity Act, 2002

Biodiversity and Biological Resource

Biodiversity has been defined under Section 2(b) of the Act as "the variability among living organisms from all sources and the ecological complexes of which they are part, and includes diversity within species or between species and of eco-systems". The Act also defines, Biological resources as "plants, animals and micro-organisms or parts thereof, their genetic material and by-products (excluding value added products) with actual or potential use or value, but does not include human genetic material."

National Biodiversity Authority and State Biodiversity Boards

The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) is a statutory autonomous body, headquartered in Chennai, under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India established in 2003 to implement the provisions under the Act. State Biodiversity Boards (SBB) has been created in 28 States along with 31,574 Biological management committees (for each local body) across India.

Functions

• Regulation of acts prohibited under the Act
• Advise the Government on the conservation of biodiversity
• Advise the Government on selection of biological heritage sites
• Take appropriate steps to oppose the grant of intellectual property rights in foreign countries, arising from the use of biological resources or associated traditional knowledge.

Regulations

A foreigner, non-resident Indian, as defined in the clause (30) of section 2 of The Income-tax Act, 1961, or a foreign company or body corporate need to take permission from the NBA before obtaining any biological resources or associated knowledge from India for research, survey, commercial utilisation. Indian citizens or body corporates need to take permission from the concerned State Biodiversity Board.

Result of research using biological resources from India cannot be transferred to a non-citizen or a foreign company without the permission of NBA. However, no such permission is needed for publication of the research in a journal or seminar, or in case of a collaborative research made by institutions approved by Central Government. The NBA while granting such permission may make an order for benefit sharing or royalty based on utilisation of such protection.

Benefit sharing

Benefit sharing out of usage of biological resources can be done in following manner:

• Joint ownership of intellectual property rights 2 3 4
• Transfer of technology
• Location of production, research development units in the area of source
• Payment of monetary and non-monetary compensation
• Setting up of venture capital fund for aiding the cause of benefit claimers

Penalties

If a person, violates the regulatory provisions he/she will be "punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years, or with fine which may extend to ten lakh rupees and where the damage caused exceeds ten lakh rupees, fine may commensurate {be in proportion} with the damage caused, or with both."

Any offence under this Act is non-bailable and is cognizable.