Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board and Law College, Uttaranchal University sign MoU

12 Oct, 2019

As part of the Indo-German project on Access and Benefit Sharing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on 11 October 2019 between the Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board (UBB) and Law College Dehradun, Uttaranchal University. The MoU was signed for the inclusion of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 in the course curriculum of the Law College and capacity building of the students regarding the legal provisions of biodiversity conservation and Access and Benefit Sharing as provided for in the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH facilitated the MoU between the two institutions which was signed by Mr. SS Rasaily, Member Secretary, Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board and Prof. (Dr) N.K Joshi, Vice Chancellor, Uttarakhand University. The MoU was exchanged between Dr. Dhanajai Mohan, Chairman, Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board and Mr. Jitendra Joshi, Chancellor, Uttarakhand University.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Rasaily said, “This is a landmark MoU between any State Biodiversity Board with a Law College, which will act as an example for other states and the results of this will be seen in the long run.”

Dr Pradeep Mehta, Technical Expert GIZ gave an overview of GIZ and explained the goal and the key objectives (detailed below) of the MoU at the beginning of the programme.

Goal: To develop a cadre of lawyers well versed with the provisions of Biological Diversity Act, 2002 so as to enable them to provide their legal services to a wide range of stakeholders.

Objectives:

• To develop a comprehensive course curriculum on the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and associated legal matters for Law students.
• Inclusion of Biological Diversity Act in the course curriculum of Law College of Uttaranchal University.
• Formulate awareness building strategies and develop awareness material for the use of other stakeholders such as the industry representatives, traders, collectors and cultivators, research institutions, Biodiversity Management Committees, Traditional Knowledge (TK) holders etc.

Nearly 250 law students were present to witness the MoU signing. Addressing the gathering the chief guest, Dr. Dhananjai Mohan said, “Uttarakhand is one of the leading states when it comes to biodiversity conservation and it is imperative that when an MoU of this kind has to be signed, Uttarakhand had to lead the way and it has rightly turned so.” He congratulated GIZ for facilitating the entire process of MoU and considered it as a major achievement of the project.

Dr. Rajesh Bahuguna, Dean Law College UU, facilitated the programme. Others present at the occasion included Mr. Anil Joshi, Technical Expert GIZ, Dr. Poonam Rawat, H.O.D.(Law), Dr. Lakshmi Priya Vinjamuri, Assistant Professor Law College and Prof. Ajay Katuri, Hazard Risk Vulnerability Analysis Expert, National Disaster Management Authority, Govt. of India.

Glimpses of the Programme