Biodiversity Act (BDA)

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) — a United Nations initiative to protect biodiversity and encourage the sustainable use of natural resources — was adopted at the 1992 'Earth Summit' held in Brazil, and India is a signatory to it. India's own domestic legal response, the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, is an Act of Parliament enacted specifically to preserve biological diversity within India, and it provides a mechanism for the equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of the country's traditional biological resources and knowledge, directly meeting India's obligations as a CBD signatory. To implement this Act, the Central Government established the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) in 2003; the NBA is a statutory body that performs facilitative, regulatory and advisory functions for the Government of India across the full range of biodiversity issues — conservation, the sustainable use of biological resources, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their use — and its headquarters is located in Chennai. The chapter closes on a deliberately direct note: fresh water, wildlife, food and climate are not merely 'nice to have', they are 'need to have' — resources indispensable to humanity's own survival — and protecting them is something that can only be achieved together, underscoring that biodiversity conservation is ultimately a shared responsibility rather than a specialist concern. The chapter's closing concept map (Fig. 12.5) visually gathers every topic covered across these nine sections — from the concept, l …