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UPSC Prelims 2023 · Environment · Rules for the Planet
Consider the following statements: Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- In India, the Biodiversity Management committees are key to the realization of the objectives of 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.
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Show the answer and explanation
Answer: (c) Both 1 and 2
Both are true: BMCs implement ABS and can charge collection fees.
Statement by statement
1. ✓ CORRECT BMCs keep People’s Biodiversity Registers and are key to access and benefit sharing — the heart of the Nagoya Protocol.
2. ✓ CORRECT Section 41(3) of the Biological Diversity Act lets BMCs levy collection fees on access to biological resources in their area.
The idea
The Nagoya Protocol says: whoever uses a biological resource or traditional knowledge must share the benefit with the people who conserved it. Those people are in villages. So India’s law puts a committee in every local body to record what the village has and to have a say when someone wants to use it.
National Biodiversity Authority (Chennai): foreigners and patents → State Biodiversity Boards: Indian companies → Biodiversity Management Committee in each local body → It prepares the People’s Biodiversity Register → It can charge a fee for collection from its area
The trap
A local committee charging fees sounds unusual, but the Act gives it that power.
Also know
The three tiers come from the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, which gives effect to the Convention on Biological Diversity. The 2023 amendment exempted AYUSH practitioners and users of codified traditional knowledge from benefit sharing, and replaced jail terms with penalties.
🔒 Biological Diversity Act 2002: NBA (Chennai) → SBBs → BMCs (People’s Biodiversity Registers).