Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) (Ecology)
Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) (Ecology)
Why In News:
The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) disbursed Rs 3.79 crore under the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) mechanism to 33 State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) and Union Territory Biodiversity Councils (UTBCs).
Source: PIB Release, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, 9 August 2026
What is Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS)?
ABS ensures that benefits from the commercial or research use of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge are shared fairly with the communities and institutions that conserve them.
Its legal basis in India is the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, and the Biological Diversity Rules, 2004.
India's ABS framework operationalises the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (2010), a supplementary agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
Institutional Architecture
National Biodiversity Authority (NBA): a statutory body under the MoEFCC, headquartered in Chennai, which approves ABS agreements and access requests by foreign entities.
State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs): advise State governments on conservation and regulate access to biological resources within their territory.
Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs): local bodies at the panchayat and municipal level that maintain People's Biodiversity Registers (PBRs).
The Bigger Picture: India's ABS Achievements
The NBA has cumulatively realised over Rs 266 crore under the ABS mechanism since 2008.
Benefits have reached over 10,500 BMCs across States and Union Territories.
The initiative contributes to Target 13 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework on fair and equitable sharing of benefits from genetic resources.
Key Facts for Prelims
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), 1992: The CBD is a legally binding international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
It was opened for signature at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and has 196 Parties.
Its three key objectives are:
Conservation of biodiversity
Sustainable use of biological resources
Fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources.
Nagoya Protocol, 2010, adopted at CBD COP-10, entered into force in 2014; India has ratified it.
The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 also governs intellectual property claims involving Indian biological resources.
The NBA additionally administers a sui generis mechanism for reviewing patent applications that use Indian biological material.