Biodiversity Governance GS: 3 "EMPOWER IAS"

In news:

• Extensive biodiversity loss in the past decades has spared neither developed nor developing countries. This has led to pacing up of global biodiversity governance.

 

The begining

• Rapidly accelerating biodiversity loss led to a series of introspections and eventually a worldwide catharsis among countries that resulted in them coming together at the Rio Summit in 1992.
• Here major legally binding conventions for the protection of nature — including the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) were adopted.
• More than 25 years have passed since 197 countries became a party to CBD, with several of them taking significant steps to protect their biodiversity.

 

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

• The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a legally binding treaty to conserve biodiversity has been in force since 1993. It has 3 main objectives:
  • o The conservation of biological diversity.
  • o The sustainable use of the components of biological diversity.
  • o The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.
• Nearly all countries have ratified it (notably, the US has signed but not ratified).
• The CBD Secretariat is based in Montreal, Canada and it operates under the United Nations Environment Programme.
• The Parties (Countries) under Convention of Biodiversity (CBD), meet at regular interval and these meetings are called Conference of Parties (COP).
• On 29 January 2000, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP5) adopted a supplementary agreement to the Convention known as the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. It came into force on 11 September 2003.
  • o The Protocol seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology.
• The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS) to the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted on 29 October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan at COP10. It entered into force on 12 October 2014.
  • o It provides a transparent legal framework for the effective implementation of one of the three objectives of the CBD: the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.
  • o It not only applies to genetic resources that are covered by the CBD, and to the benefits arising from their utilization but also covers traditional knowledge (TK) associated with genetic resources that are covered by the CBD and the benefits arising from its utilization.
• Along with Nagoya Protocol on Genetic Resources, the COP-10 also adopted a ten-year framework for action by all countries to save biodiversity.
• Officially known as “Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020”, provide a set of 20 ambitious yet achievable targets (divided into 5 sections: A to E), collectively known as the Aichi Targets for biodiversity.
• The Aichi Biodiversity Targets are:
  • o Strategic Goal A: Address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society
  • o Strategic Goal B: Reduce the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use.
  • o Strategic Goal C: To improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity
  • o Strategic Goal D: Enhance the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services
  • o Strategic Goal E: Enhance implementation through participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building.
• India enacted Biological Diversity Act in 2002 for giving effect to the provisions of the CBD.
• The National Biodiversity Authority is a statutory body, which was established by the Central Government in 2003 to implement India’s Biological Diversity Act (2002).
  • o It performs facilitative, regulatory and advisory functions for the Government of India on issues of conservation, sustainable use of biological resources and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of biological resources.
  • o The NBA is headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
• International Biological Diversity Day is observed on 22 May. Theme for 2018: "Celebrating 25 Years of Action for Biodiversity".
• United Nations General Assembly had declared the period 2011-2020 to be the “United Nations Decade on Biodiversity”.

 

Success of CBD

• The CBD, in its spirit, laid the foundation for ethics taking priority over mindless exploitation and constantly sounded a reminder to the international community in the form of Article 15 and Article 8 (j).
• Article 15 of the CBD recognised the right of states to their genetic resources and Article 8 (j) recognised the rights of communities to their traditional knowledge.
• With these guidelines in mind, most countries that signed the CBD met again at Nagoya in Japan in 2010 and adopted the Nagoya Protocol that aimed to give effect to the fair and equitable sharing provisions of the CBD.

 

The 12 National Biodiversity targets of India are:

• By 2020, a significant proportion of the country’s population, especially the youth, is aware of the values of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve and use it sustainably.
• By 2020, values of biodiversity are integrated into national and state planning processes, development programmes and poverty alleviation strategies.
• Strategies for reducing the rate of degradation, fragmentation and loss of all natural habitats are finalized and actions put in place by 2020 for environmental amelioration and human well-being.
• By 2020, invasive alien species and pathways are identified and strategies to manage them developed so that populations of prioritized invasive alien species are managed.
• By 2020, measures are adopted for sustainable management of agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
• Ecologically representative areas under terrestrial and inland water, and also coastal and marine zones, especially those of particular importance for species, biodiversity and ecosystem services, are conserved effectively and equitably, based on protected area designation and management and other area-based conservation measures and are integrated into the wider landscapes and seascapes, covering over 20% of the geographic area of the country, by 2020.
• By 2020, genetic diversity of cultivated plants, farm livestock, and their wild relatives, including other socio-economically as well as culturally valuable species, is maintained, and strategies have been developed and implemented for minimizing genetic erosion and safeguarding their genetic diversity.
• By 2020, ecosystem services, especially those relating to water, human health, livelihoods and well-being, are enumerated and measures to safeguard them are identified, taking into account the needs of women and local communities, particularly the poor and vulnerable sections.
• By 2015, Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization as per the Nagoya Protocol are operational, consistent with national legislation.
• By 2020, an effective, participatory and updated national biodiversity action plan is made operational at different levels of governance.
• By 2020, national initiatives using communities’ traditional knowledge relating to biodiversity are strengthened, with the view to protecting this knowledge in accordance with national legislation and international obligations.
• By 2020, opportunities to increase the availability of financial, human and technical resources to facilitate effective implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the national targets are identified and the Strategy for Resource Mobilization is adopted.

 

Supplementary agreements:

• CBD has two supplementary agreements – Cartagena Protocol and Nagoya Protocol.

 

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity:

• It is an international treaty governing the movements of living modified organisms (LMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology from one country to another.
• It was adopted on 29 January 2000 as a supplementary agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity and entered into force on 11 September 2003.

 

Nagoya Protocol:

• The Nagoya Protocolprovides a transparent legal framework for the effective implementation of one of the three objectives of the CBD: the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.
• The Nagoya Protocol on ABS was adopted on 29 October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan and entered into force on 12 October 2014.
• Objective:Fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources, thereby contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

 

Steps taken by India

• India — a key mega-biodiversity country — adopted the Biological Diversity Act (BD Act) in 2002 to halt and reverse effects of diversity loss.
• The BD Act was hailed as an important step towards preserving our vast biodiversity.
• It was considered pioneer legislation as it recognised the sovereign right of countries over their natural resources.
• It also put restrictions on the access of bio-resources by user countries.
• The BD Act was a game-changer, ensuring the conservation and sustainable use of resources, leading to proper sharing of benefits to local populations.

 

BD Act in action

• Under the BD Act, an important regulatory mechanism was the emphasis on access and benefit-sharing (ABS) to local populations
• Having integrated ABS within a decade of CBD, India came to be regarded as a pioneer country: Only 105 of 197 countries that signed CBD formed national legislation for regulatory use of bio-resources.
• This initial initiative taken by the Union government went a long way in strengthening the case of securing benefits for its rightful owners for the coming decades.
• The BD Act seeks to address issues of managing bio-resources in the most decentralized manner possible without compromising on the sovereignty of the country or community’s rights over these resources.
• The act lists conditions under which persons, commercial firms and other institutions can access biological resources and the knowledge associated with them.
• It created three structures: The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) at the national level, the state biodiversity boards (SSBs) at the state level and biodiversity management committees (BMCs) at the local level.

 

Adopting ABS

• With the adoption of the BD Act, the focus shifted on actualizing the tenets of CBD.
• It was felt that an efficient mechanism — acceptable to all countries and a reference point for issues of bio-resources — needs to be adopted.
• For a process that began in 1992 with the CBD, the detailed action points were adopted under the Nagoya Protocol.
• Almost immediately, countries began the process of implementing national legislation to adopt the regulatory frameworks and India, again, took the lead and adopted the ABS guidelines in 2014.
• India’s stand leading upto the negotiations that finally led to the adoption of the Nagoya Protocol was of intense negotiations.

 

Benefit for India

• India was a victim of misappropriation or bio-piracy of our genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, which were patented in other countries.
• Well-known examples of this include neem and turmeric.
• India and other developing countries fought hard in several international negotiations to correct the historical wrong of being victims of bio-piracy and succeeded in scoring a major victory.
• It is expected that the Nagoya Protocol on ABS, a key missing pillar of the CBD, addressed this concern.