Biological diversity Act 2002

India took part in the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro and became a party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, 1992). To provide a legal framework for the sustainable management and conservation of the country's natural resources in line with the CBD, the Government of India passed the Biological Diversity Act (BD Act) in 2002. The Act broadly defines biodiversity to include plants, animals and microorganisms, their parts, their genetic material and their by-products, while specifically excluding value-added products and human genetic material.

The main objectives behind the Act are to regulate access to India's biological resources and to build a scientific record (catalogue) of traditional knowledge relating to ethnobiological materials. It establishes a three-tier governance system: the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) at the national level, State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) at the state level, and Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) at the local level, each responsible for approving the use of biological resources for commercial or research purposes. Foreign nationals, NRIs as well as Indian citizens and institutions are all required to obtain prior pe …