Consultation meeting with Kodaikanal Biodiversity Management Committee to obtain feedback on ABS application

08 Aug, 2019

The provisions of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 lay emphasis on obtaining feedback from Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) or the local bodies while taking any decision on matters relating to the use of biological resources and associated knowledge [Sections 24(2) & 41(3)]. Access to biological resources and fair and equitable sharing of benefits (or ABS) essentially has two elements –

• Prior Informed Consent (PIC) which is granted by the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA)/ the State Biodiversity Board (SBB) that sets conditions for access;
• Mutually Agreed Terms (MAT), which is an agreement signed between NBA/SBB and the users of biological resources (BR). Feedback obtained from BMCs becomes an integral part of MAT.

A consultation meeting was held with the members of Kodaikanal BMC (Tamil Nadu) on 8th August 2019 to discuss the ABS application (form-1) for access to a BR (name withheld to maintain confidentiality) from the Kodaikanal region and facilitate a collective decision-making process among the BMC members to obtain their feedback on the ABS application.

Four BMC members, including the Chairman, participated in the consultation meeting which was facilitated by the Range Forest Officer of the Tamil Nadu Forest Department (designated as Secretary of BMC of Kodaikanal BMC) and representative of Block Development Officer. The Kodaikanal BMC was established on 12th November 2018 and held its first meeting on 9th March 2019.

The District Forest Officer of Kodaikanal, Mr. S.N. Thejasvi, IFS., spoke about Access and Benefit Sharing provisions of the Biological Diversity Act and its process. He encouraged the members to discuss the access application in detail and welcomed queries that will facilitate feedback on the ABS application. Ms. C. Vidhya, IFS., the District Forest Officer of Dindigul district and Nodal officer for facilitating establishment of BMCs and documentation of People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBR) in the district talked about the objectives of the Act and the roles and functions of BMCs. She also stressed on the need for wider participation of communities in promoting local area conservation and other BMC activities such as documentation of PBR. This was followed by detailed discussion on nature of activity that will be carried out using the biological resources access from Kodaikanal. Ms. Dhivyalakshmi Sridhar, Junior Technical Expert from the ABS Partnership Project, who explained the nuances of the ABS process in local language, to ensure BMC members are well informed about all the different aspects of ABS, how ABS agreements are made and also answered all the queries.

The Chairman and three members of the BMC (a farmer, and members of a Self-Help Group and the Village Poverty Reduction Committee, respectively), after much deliberation, resolved to provide their consent to access the BR requested by the user.

The Access and Benefit Sharing Partnership Project has been supporting capacity development of 10 pilot BMCs across 8 districts in Tamil Nadu to strengthen knowledge, skills of BMC members to perform functions mandated under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. The project has also identified value-chain of selected BR to facilitate ABS process and develop ABS good practices.