National Biodiversity Authority Crosses Rs 200 Crore Milestone in Access and Benefit-Sharing Disbursements Under Biological Diversity Act
Distilled Policy Brief
- The funds were received from seed companies including Nunhems India Pvt. Ltd., East West Seeds India Pvt. Ltd., and Bayer Science and Innovation Pvt. Ltd., and allocated based on cultivation area statistics.
🎯 Prelims High-Yield Examination Points
National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) crossed Rs 200 crore in cumulative Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) disbursements under the Biological Diversity Act, aligning with the Nagoya Protocol and Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (Target 13).
⚖️ Mains Analytical & Syllabus Linkages
Examine the significance of Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) mechanisms under the Biological Diversity Act in ensuring equitable sharing of benefits derived from genetic resources with local communities and conservation efforts.
🎯 UPSC Prelims Practice Drill
With reference to the Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) mechanism implemented by the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), consider the following statements: 1. The ABS funds are distributed directly to individual farmers and source communities whose specific lands were used to procure the biological resources. 2. When biological resources are procured through open markets or traders making it impossible to link them to a single specific source, the funds are distributed to State Biodiversity Boards based on cultivation area statistics published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- [A] 1 only
- [B] 2 only
- [C] Both 1 and 2
- [D] Neither 1 nor 2
▶ Reveal Official Answer & Analytical Explanation
Statement 1 is incorrect because when biological resources are obtained via open markets or traders, individual providers or source communities cannot be directly identified. Statement 2 is correct as, in such cases, the expert committee-recommended and authority-approved mechanism distributes the beneficiary share of the ABS amount among State Biodiversity Boards and Union Territory Biodiversity Councils based on cultivation area statistics published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
🏛️ Historical Twin PYQ Anchor (2021)
Consider the following statements regarding the "National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)": 1. It is implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. 2. Central Pollution Control Board acts as the sole regulatory executive body.