Table Of ContentOommen V. Oommen ·
K. P. Laladhas · Prakash Nelliyat ·
Balakrishna Pisupati Editors
Biodiversity
Conservation
Through Access
and Benefit
Sharing (ABS)
Himalayas and Indian Sub-Continent
Biodiversity Conservation Through Access
and Benefit Sharing (ABS)
· ·
Oommen V. Oommen K. P. Laladhas
·
Prakash Nelliyat Balakrishna Pisupati
Editors
Biodiversity Conservation
Through Access and Benefit
Sharing (ABS)
Himalayas and Indian Sub-Continent
Editors
Oommen V. Oommen K. P. Laladhas
Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
Centre for Venom Informatics University of Kerala
University of Kerala Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
Balakrishna Pisupati
Prakash Nelliyat Head of Biodiversity, Land and Governance
Center for Water Resources Programme, Environmental Law
Anna University and Conventions
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP)
Nairobi, Kenya
ISBN 978-3-031-16185-8 ISBN 978-3-031-16186-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16186-5
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
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This book is dedicated to Ms. Sugatha
Kumarai and Prof. M. K. Prasad, the
renowned Environmentalists whose
contribution to conservation of Biological
Diversity and ABS are remembered with
gratitude.
Foreword
A Timely Reminder
This seminal book deals with the multidimensional aspects of a domain of existential
significance. Biodiversity conservation through Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS)
has been brought to the consciousness of the modern world through Convention
on Biological Diversity (CBD). Access and Benefit Sharing of the global public
good of biodiversity got its due place in national legislations. The Nagoya Protocol
seeks to bring about greater legal certainty and transparency to ensure benefit sharing
for both providers and users of genetic resources including Traditional Knowledge
(TK). India ratified the Nagoya Protocol in 2014 and enacted the Bio Diversity Act
as early as in 2002 and the Biological Diversity Rules in 2004 and issued guidelines
on Access to Biological Resources and Associated Knowledge and Benefit Sharing
Regulations in 2014. The net effect of these legislative and regulatory exercises is
rather limited and sub-optimal, if not disappointing. The contributors to this volume,
though restrained and modest, by virtue of their academic discipline, do not fail to
point out the socio-cultural and administrative lacunae and hurdles for achieving the
objectives of these legislations.
Through the eighteen papers divided into five parts, this volume is able to address
the entire gamut of the idea of ABS, underscoring the complexities and intercon-
nectedness. From discussing the essential details of the CBD the papers go on to
explore key aspects like the Indian experience of the implementation of the Nagoya
Protocol, India’s achievements on ABS, statutory obligations, issues of Traditional
Knowledge (TK) and technology transfer, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), ABS
and Sustainable Development, ABS and its Economics, and several such specific
issues. The volume is distinct for the sweep of topics and their relevance as well as
the array of the contributing stalwarts.
Having ratified the CBD, India has discharged its obligation to put in place legal,
administrative and institutional measures. India with its rich biowealth should ideally
benefit from the CBD and the Nagoya Protocol on ABS. it could be leveraged not
only to safeguard our biodiversity but also to leverage economic opportunities for
vii
viii Foreword
the stakeholders. We have a three tier regulatory structure with the National Biodi-
versity Authority (NBA), State Biodiversity Boards and Biodiversity Committees
at the local level. Statutory Biodiversity Funds are also contemplated for sharing
the benefits to the stakeholders. Admittedly, these institutional arrangements have
generated considerable interest and concern about biodiversity and a few states have
done commendably well. Kerala Biodiversity Board, for instance, has succeeded
in preparing People’s Biodiversity Registers and positioning itself as a guardian of
biodiversity against powerful subversive forces.
Inclusiveness of the stakeholders and involvement of local community are the
essential prerequisites for optimizing the ABS process. That would give the local
communities a sense of belonging and ownership. The Nagoya Protocol clarifies how
ABS can drive sustainable development through market mechanisms. Traditional
Knowledge is yet another major area that can contribute to ABS provided the State
is able to arrive at a nuanced and sensitive approach and strategy. Enforcement of
the legal provisions calls for comprehension, commitment and conviction. Evidently,
the Indian experience of ABS process is a mixed bag of achievements and apathy.
In a country with so much of biowealth and diverse stakeholders, a suboptimal
enforcement deprives opportunities for sustainability and well-being. Communities
like the tribal population, fishers, people living in the Himalayas and other groups
living in close proximity with nature have a keen awareness about biowealth and
an extremely rich Traditional Knowledge that should be safeguarded and leveraged.
Medicinal plants and IPR issues have also been brought to sharper focus in the book.
Though India has conformed with the binding provisions of the CBD, the net
outcome, after three decades cannot be termed as impressive. Problems and omis-
sions outnumber achievements. Lack of awareness is evidently the primary cause for
lackadaisical implementation but the situation merits the question: have sufficient
energy and resources been spent at the national or state levels to create awareness,
realizing the formidable counter currents and persuading the votaries of ‘development
at any cost’?
These insightful papers in different tones and intensities convey the essential
message that much remains to be done. Communities have to be sensitized and
empowered, political opinion has to be influenced, and administrative mechanisms
have to be charged with a new sense of urgency to make CBD, Nagoya Protocol
and ABS meaningful. ‘Business as usual’ approach will not take us far. There is
an imminent need to contextualize these responsibilities in the larger framework of
global warming and climate change. No positive measures to mitigate climate change
can ever be useful if biodiversity is ignored and allowed to diminish.
This book is a timely reminder of the unfinished task of conservation of biodiver-
sity, despite having all legal frameworks in place. The papers are not overtly critical
but they don’t flinch away from telling the truth, albeit with academic objectivity.
What should cascade into the administrative arena as executive decisions necessarily
begins as scientific and academic concern and conviction. Every reader who appre-
ciates the critical value of biodiversity and ABS in its myriad complexities should be
grateful to the editors, Prof. Oommen V. Oommen, Prof. K. P. Laladhas, Dr. Prakash
Nelliyat and Dr. Balakrishna Pisupati. Those of us, who value this earth and silently
Foreword ix
experience gratefulness, will relish this book for its timeliness, objectivity, clarity,
structure and the brilliant contributors. Sooner than later this book will find its way
to policymakers even as they would be busy warding off the deprivations likely to
be caused by the reality of climate change.
K. Jayakumar
Former Chief Secretary
Government of Kerala and
Director, Institute of Management
in Government
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
Acknowledgments
The editors acknowledge the generous contributions of all authors and the technical
support rendered by the department of Computational Biology University of Kerala,
accredited with A++ Grade by National Assessment and Accreditation Council and
Avantika George, Canada for proof reading, during the publication process.
xi
Contents
Part I Premise of Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS)
1 Convention on Biological Diversity, Access and Benefit
Sharing: A Glance ............................................ 3
Prakash Nelliyat, Balakrishna Pisupati, K. P. Laladhas,
and Oommen V. Oommen
2 Implementation of the Nagoya Protocol in India: Experiences,
Challenges and Learnings ...................................... 17
Prakash Nelliyat
3 Achievements in India’s ABS Mechanism ........................ 37
K. P. Laladhas, J. R. Rani, Joseph Mar Dionysius,
Achuthsankar S. Nair, P. R. Sudhakaran, and Oommen V. Oommen
4 Statutory and Obligatory Responsibilities of State Biodiversity
Boards for the Conservation of Indigenous Biodiversity
and ABS ..................................................... 55
K. P. Laladhas, J. R. Rani, A. S. Vijaya Sree,
Achuthsankar S. Nair, and Oommen V. Oommen
Part II Technology Transfer
5 Access and Benefit Sharing of Biological Resources
and Associated TK: A Multi-tiered Responsibility ................ 81
T. C. James and S. Rajasekharan
6 Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and ABS: Need
for Universal Accountability and Monitoring .................... 103
Padmavati Manchikanti
xiii
