Conservation of Biodiversity

IT is virtually a race against time. The task of conservation of biodiversity in the face of man-made ecological degradation poses several daunting challenges including resource-mobilisation, protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) of the local communities and harmonising the conflicting interests between development and conservation.

As over 8,000 delegates from 193 countries gathered at Hyderabad for the United Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to deliberate on strategies for conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and regulated access to genetic resources, several questions came to the fore.

IPR protection

For India, hosting the 11th Conference of Parties (COP-11) to the CBD, a plethora of challenges stare in its face, key among them being protection of IPRs for its traditional knowledge and biological resources. Being one of the world's 12 mega-biodiversity centres with rich flora and fauna, India has been a victim of bio-piracy. There have been several cases of its unique genetic resources being plundered and misappropriated. The long patent battles over "neem" and "haldi" illustrate the enormity of the task for a country that takes pride in its traditional knowledge.

Biological diversity denotes the totality and variety of living organisms on Earth and is usually classified at three levels — genes, species and ecosystems. There is growing recognition that biological diversity is a global asset of tremendous value to present and future generations.

India’s bounty   Nearly 7% of all globally recorded species   Over 45,000 recorded species of plants and 91,000 of animals   668 protected areas: 102 national parks, 515 wildlife sanctuaries, 47 conservation reserves and 4 community reserves   40 tiger reserves and 28 elephant reserves   UNESCO designated five protected areas as world heritage sites COP-11 Agenda   Setting national targets and updating national biodiversity action plans   Status of Nagoya Protocol   Resource mobilisation   Biodiversity for sustainable development, livelihoods, poverty reduction and food security   Coastal and marine biodiversity

Though India signed the 2010 Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS), it is yet to ratify the protocol because of its concerns over IPR issues. It was at India's insistence that the Hyderabad conference took note of the issue of involving local communities in devising laws pertaining to genetically modified (GM) organisms.

The member countries at COP resolved to consider the voice of local communities before deciding on GM organisms. The meeting of Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety gave a call to involve indigenous communities before deciding on GM technologies. It was also decided to set up an international ad hoc expert committee to decide on economic considerations of the people involved. The group will consist of 40 members from five regions of the world. While this development is seen as a vindication of India's stand, its own record on safeguarding bio-diversity, traditional knowledge and interests of the local communities is far from satisfactory.

National Biodiversity Authority

India is among a few countries to have enacted biodiversity law in 2002. The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) was established in 2003 under this Act. The NBA is also mandated to ensure equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of these resources and knowledge to the country and the people.

As of 2011, the NBA has approved 607 cases for access, IPR and transfer of research results. Of these, 437 were permissions for applying for IPRs. However, the NBA's access and benefit sharing agreements frequently come under fire from critics for not involving the local people. As many as 100 such agreements have been signed since 2006, which is a world record. Environmentalists have been raising objections over the current policy of allowing the NBA to screen IPR applications based on India's biological wealth and intellectual heritage. Even a decade after enacting the biodiversity law, India is still struggling to do a balancing act of punishing multinationals who indulge in bio-piracy and providing the private sector with an access to the rich biodiversity in the interests of science.

Bio-piracy

The latest case against the Maharashtra Hybrid Corporation (Mahyco) regarding Bt brinjal becomes the country's first-ever bio-piracy criminal case against a private company. The charge against Mahyco is that it was developing Bt brinjal by using a local variety's germplasm. There is growing opposition to the government allowing open research access of germplasm.

Questions are being asked whether the NBA has been effective in protecting farmers from multinationals. Though the biodiversity Act was meant to provide for the conservation of biological diversity, the reality check shows that it has been ineffective. Experts say the Act does not take a clear position on IPRs and there has been no instance of it invoking powers to oppose the grant of IPR in any foreign country on biological resources. Many states have evinced no interest in constituting Biodiversity Management Committees.

Economic crisis

The global economic crisis has also cast a shadow over the meet, raising doubts whether the member countries will be able to mobilise resources to meet the targets of biodiversity conservation. However, the Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan exuded confidence that the countries would raise investments in biodiversity.

A look at the status of implementation of goals regarding bio-diversity conservation reveals that not much is being done. Only 14 out of 193 countries, who are signatories to the 2010 Nagoya protocol on protection of endangered species and habitats, have actually ratified it. As per the targets fixed at the Nagoya meet, it was agreed to reduce the loss of natural habitats by 50 per cent and increase the area of the world's land taken up by nature reserves to 17 per cent by 2020.

The Aichi biodiversity targets also called for marine protected zones to increase from 1 per cent of the world's seas to 10 per cent by 2020.

Clash of interests

The Association of Biotechnology-Led Enterprises (ABLE) argued that restrictions on GM crops would impede progress. “Scaremongers have to be dealt with strictly. Risk management is important,” said Dr N Seetharaman, executive director of ABLE.

Dwelling upon conditions in India, Neema Pathak Broome, a member of Kalpavriksh, an NGO in Pune, said legislation on fresh water conservation was lagging. “In India there is a need for formation of laws aiming at conserving fresh water and marine biodiversity. We have many laws for forest conservation, she said.

Seeking to harmonise conflicting interests, Jayanthi Natarajan called for science-based regulation on the safe use of LMOs while acknowledging the reservations and concerns over their long-term impact on ecology and conservation.

What is Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)  The CBD is an international treaty to sustain the rich diversity of life on earth with three main goals of conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.  The Conference of the Parties is the governing body that advances implementation of the convention through decisions it takes at its biennial meetings.  Cartagena Protocol was adopted in 2000 for the safe transfer, handling and use of living modified organisms.  Nagoya Protocol was adopted at Nagoya, Japan, in 2010 to ensure fair access to genetic resources and equitable sharing arising from their utilisation. Six countries ratified it while 92 signed it. India is yet to ratify it. The hitch Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Convention on Biological Diversity executive secretary, says: “We need at least 50 countries of the 193 parties to the convention to ratify the protocol in order to acquire legal status.” Red alert The International Union for the Conservation of Nature says nearly half of amphibian species, a third of corals, a quarter of mammals, a fifth of all plants and 13 per cent of the world’s birds are facing extinction.