Biological Diversity Amendment Bill
Source: PRS
GS II: Governance
Overview
- News in Brief
- About the Bill
Why in News ?
Biological Diversity Amendment Bill passed in Lok Sabha.
- The bill brings changes to the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 by decriminalising biodiversity offences, among others.
About the Bill
- The Bill amends the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 to simplify compliance requirements for domestic companies.
Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash - The Bill removes research and bio-survey activities from the purview of benefit sharing requirements.
- The Bill decriminalises all offences under the Act.
- Benefit sharing will be based on terms agreed between the user and the local management committee represented by the National Authority.
Key Features
- Obtaining Biological Resources
- Prior approval or intimation to the regulatory authority based on the origin of the entity for obtaining biological resources occurring in India or associated knowledge.
- Regulatory Authority
- The regulatory authorities under the Act for these purposes are National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) and State Biodiversity Boards (SBB).
- Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
- The Act specifies that approval of NBA is required before
- Applying for IPR involving biological resources obtained from India
- Sealing of patent.
- Approval will be required before the grant of IPR
- Foreign entities require approval from NBA whereas domestic entities required to register with NBA.
- The Act specifies that approval of NBA is required before
- Benefit sharing
- What is Benefit Sharing?: Share monetary and non-monetary benefits with benefit claimers and local people.
- NBA is required to determine terms of benefit sharing while granting approvals for various activities
- Offences and Penalties
- Failing to take approval or providing prior intimation for various activities.
- Punishable with imprisonment of up to five years, or a fine, or both.
- Bill decriminalises the offences and makes offences punishable with a penalty between one lakh rupees and Rs 50 lakh.
- Continued violations might result in additional fines of up to one crore rupees.
- Enquiring Authority: officer of at least the rank of Joint Secretary of the central government or the rank of Secretary of the state government.
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