Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and GIZ sign the Implementation Agreement for the Access and Benefit Sharing Partnership Project.

09 Nov, 2017

Dr. Konrad Übelhoer (left) and Dr. B. Meenakumari (right) sign the
Implementation Agreement of the ABS Partnership Project

The National Biodiversity Authority, an autonomous and statutory body of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH India on behalf of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany signed an agreement on technical cooperation under the “Access and Benefit Sharing Partnership Project (ABS)” on 09.11.2017 in Chennai.

The agreement was signed by Dr. B. Meenakumari, Chairperson of National Biodiversity Authority, Chennai; and Dr. Konrad Übelhoer, Director, Indo-German Biodiversity Programme. Dr. Üebelhoer resumed "After signing the IA today, we had a very constructive meeting with the NBA and SBBs and we hope that the positive mood that guided all our discussions today will smoothly carry our project forward".

Access and Benefit Sharing Partnership Project (ABS) is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) under the Indo-German Biodiversity Programme and is implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

The objective of the ABS partnership project is to increase awareness and strengthen the capacities of the National Biodiversity Authority, the State Biodiversity Boards of Maharasthra,Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand, their Biodiversity Management Committee as well as users of biological resources for effective implementation of ABS mechanism under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 in keeping with India’s commitments under the Nagoya Protocol. The project duration is planned until April 2020.