[Pirateninfo] Biopiracy and India's Biodiversity Bill
Silke Pohl
sipohl at yahoo.com
Mon Dez 16 05:27:29 CET 2002
<AgBioIndia@agbioindia.org> schrieb am 05.12.02 05:48:03:
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AgBioIndia Mailing List
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05 December 2002
Subject: Biopiracy and India's Biodiversity Bill
At a time when biopiracy and (mis)appropriation of genetic resources
and the traditional knowledge associated with its use has assumed
alarming proportion, Lok Sabha, the Lower House in Indian Parliament
has
passed the controversial National Biodiversity Bill. The Bill will now
be
placed in the Upper House, Rajya Sabha, which had earlier turned it
down.
The re-introduction of the Bill comes with 69 amendments!
The National Biodiversity Bill, which will become an Act if the Rajya
Sabha accords approval, is surely a step in the right direction. The
Bill is actually the culmination of a process that was initiated by two
NGOs -- Forum for Biotechnology & Food Security, and Gene Campaign --
when they had put out a draft act for conserving and protecting the
country's massive biodiversity. This was some four to five years ago.
The
NGOs intitiative had shaken up the government from slumber and forced
to
put together an official Bill. But not everyone is happy. And rightly
so.
The National Biodiversity Bill is a weak instrument when it comes to
protecting the traditional knowledge. In fact, it provides no legal
protection to the traditional knowledge that this country has. By
documenting and putting the information in a digital form (justifying
it by
saying that this will protect its misappropriation), the Ministry for
Environment & Forests is actually facilitating the process of
biopiracy.
Further, the Bill is silent on the newest form of biopiracy - genome
sequencing. With multinational companies mapping the genomes of plants
and animals, and then cloning the genes and drawing IPR over these, how
can the country's interests be protected?
Contents:
1. Parliament Clears Biodiversity Bill
2. Biodiversity policy: bold, new step -- By Keya Acharya
-------------------------------
1. Parliament clears Bio-Diversity Bill
Pioneer News Service
New Delhi, Dec 3: Keen to preserve the biological resources of the
country, Parliament on Monday gave its approval for setting up of a
three-tier structure including an apex National Biodiversity Authority
(NBA)
at Chennai. The Biological Diversity Bill, passed by a voice vote in
Lok
Sabha, seeks establishment of State bio-diversity boards (SBBs) and
bio-diversity management committees (BMCs), besides the NBA, to
regulate
access to the diverse plant and animal genetic resources in the
country.
Winding up a debate on the bill, Environment and Forests Minister T R
Baalu on Monday allayed fears that the measure could lead to
exploitation and piracy of traditional knowledge and said the
Government would
provide adequate safeguards against any misuse of the law by
multinational
companies and others. Steps would be taken to enhance capacity at
village level through the BMCs to ensure true empowerment of the people
and
provisions of the bill primarily addressed issues concerning access to
genetic resources and associated knowledge by foreign individuals,
institutions or companies, he said. It also envisaged equitable sharing
of
benefits from these resources and knowledge with the country concerned.
Defending the decision to have the NBA at Chennai, Mr.Baalu said the
city has rich biodiversity as it is surrounded by Bay of Bengal,
Arabian
Sea, Indian Ocean, Western Ghat, Eastern Ghat and wide range of flora
and fauna. Participating in the discussion, members expressed
apprehensions that the bill may enable multinational companies and
foreign
agencies to grab many valuable knowledge and skills. Besides protecting
knowledge of local communities related to bio-diversity, the bill seeks
to
conserve and develop areas important from the standpoint of biological
diversity by declaring them as heritage sites. In the past, the
biological resources of the country had been shared freely with other
countries
but this scenario had changed following the coming into force of the
convention on biological diversity. The convention provides for
facilitating access to genetic resources for environmentally sound uses
on
mutually agreed terms with prior consent of the country providing these
resources.
The minister said such facilitation of access could be provided only
through national legislation. Congress deputy leader Shivraj V. Patil,
however, said the bill had been drafted in a casual and clumsy manner
and
was devoid of lucidity.
--------------------
2. Biodiversity policy: bold, new step
By Keya Acharya
Deccan Herald, Nov 29
India's largest and most complex effort at documenting its natural
biodiversity and coming up with implementable strategies to conserve
it, is
currently nearing completion. The UNDP-Global Environmental Facility
and the Union Environment Ministry's National Biodiversity Strategy and
Action Plan (NBSAP) has been a two-year process involving participation
of all States and Union Territories. Executed in an unusually
innovative Government collaboration with an NGO, NBSAP's scope has been
huge: 18
sub-State ecological zones, 10 inter-State ecologically important
zones, 13 thematic level plans on major areas of biodiversity and 30
reviews
of specialised biodiversity areas.
The outreach has been equally wide. Tens of thousands of people
including school children and youth, along with Government
administration,
have been garnered through 'biodiversity melas', cycle and bullock-cart
rallies, cultural programmes, calls for public hearings and
participation
to put forward their suggestions and concern.
Studies of India's floral and faunal history through geological
evolution of ghats, mountains and rivers together with its history of
human
ethnicity have formed the basis for profiling India's biodiversity.
Economic, cultural, scientific, aesthetic, food security and health
values
have been studied, along with current laws and policies to check the
causes for the loss of biodiversity.
It has one significant deviation though, in its attempts at critically
analysing its own processes. Thus it states that though most critical
areas have been covered, NBSAP's integration of gender equity and
empowerment has remained weak. Its link with Government departments of
Agriculture, Health and Biotechnology has also remained nebulous. One
positive outcome of that inability to co-ordinate is that it has
highlighted
India's inadequate baseline data on genetic diversity, whether wild or
domesticated, and the consequent poor understanding of the links
between
wild and agricultural biodiversity. State Governments have been more
open to the exercise and made moves towards formulating plans for
biodiversity conservation.
Rousing response
Ironically enough, even while ecological degradation is rampant
throughout the country, the response from the people of India towards
the
process has been overwhelming. In Andhra Pradesh's tribal belt of
Srikakulam, youth self-help groups, village panchayats and women's
sanghas have
taken it on themselves to collaborate with the Government to rope in
schemes existing within the Integrated Rural Development Project.
In Punjab, the nodal agency appointed for conducting the NBSAP did an
analysis of the entire available biodiversity-related PhD and MPhil
theses from the State's academic institutions. The Rajasthan State
nodal
agency developed an integrated chart on the impact of biodiversity on
the
various Government departments. Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura
conducted village-level public hearings across several districts,
generating
interest and awareness. In Karnataka, an entire cadre of college
students
conducted mapping and data collection exercises in documenting the
State's biodiversity and traditional plant knowledge into Biodiversity
Registers.
Article 6 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, 1993) of
which India is a signatory along with 174 others, requires parties to
prepare NBSAPs. The UNDP-GEF combine has sponsored these biodiversity
strategies and action plans in countries in Asia, South America, Africa
and
nation-islands. Interestingly, the tiny and strife-ravaged Palestine
has
already begun implementing its conservation recommendations.
Biodiversity Bill
What is the Indian Government going to do with these plans? Its vision
of becoming a 'developed' nation by 2025 and the administrative bend
towards all-out development have led to rapid ecological decline as
well
as conflict with the community at large. Lakes are drying up, seas are
over-fished and dumped with toxics, mountains and lands defaced in a
manner that shows serious absence of a sound land-use policy. The EIAs
(environmental integrated assessment), required by law in commercial
projects involving natural resources have more often than not thrown up
inadequate evaluation and highlighted the absence of a compulsory
independent assessment. The Government has not prioritised
environmental
conservation in its bid to develop the country.
Yet it is not that biodiversity conservation is new to India. Numerous
Central Government conservation initiatives are being conducted mainly
by the ministries of science, technology, environment and agriculture.
The Biodiversity Conservation Prioritisation Project (BCPP 1999) was
India's largest and most comprehensive exercise to prioritise sites,
species and strategies for conservation.
NBSAP is now leaning on the Biodiversity Bill, asking that each State's
Biodiversity Board works in tandem with a Central NBSAP Implementation
Committee formed through cross-country representation of NGOs, civil
society and Government and seeks recognition of biodiversity within the
Planning Commission.
But in spite of its best efforts, the country's poor record of
implementing environmental laws leaves the NBSAP vulnerably exposed to
each
State's interest in the matter. And each State's interest in turn
stands
vulnerably exposed to 'development'. Perhaps the best counter to this
would be in the active voice of all the tens of thousands of people
that
helped formulate the strategy. Let us at least hold our heads up on
this one and pull off implementation this time round.
____________________________________________
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KARSTEN WOLFF
Geographer and Tropical Agriculturalist
33-16-02 Ferringhi
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