Context: Recently, Government of India has introduced the Biological Diversity Amendment Bill, 2021, in the Lok Sabha.
Purpose of the Biological Diversity Amendment Bill 2021

• The Bill seeks to amend the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 with the aim of reducing the compliance burden and facilitating investment. 

Key provisions of the Biological Diversity Amendment Bill 2021

• Firstly, it exempts registered AYUSH medical practitioners and people accessing codified traditional knowledge among others from giving prior intimation to State biodiversity boards for accessing biological resources for certain purposes.
• Secondly, the Bill exempts cultivated medicinal plants from the purview of the Act.
• Thirdly, the bill facilitates fast-tracking of research, and patent application process.
• Fourthly, violations of the law related to access to biological resources and benefit-sharing with communities that are currently treated as criminal offences and are non-bailable have been proposed to be made civil offences.

Key criticisms against the Biological Diversity Amendment Bill 2021

• It prioritises intellectual property and commercial trade at the expense of the Act’s key aim of conserving biological resources.
• It does not mention any provision for protecting, conservation of biodiversity or increasing local communities’ stake in sustainable use.
• It mainly intends to focus on benefits to the Ayush Industry.
• The bill also exempts cultivated medicinal plants from the purview of the Act. However, it is practically impossible to detect which plants are cultivated and which are from the wild.
• It would also pave the way for “biopiracy”. 

Key Suggestions

Effective Implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA): The government must make an effort to build trust between its agencies in the area and the people who depend on these forests by treating them as equal citizens like everyone else in the country..

• The FRA’s loopholes have already been identified; all it needs is to work on amending it.

Integration of International Treaties: The implementation of Nagoya Protocol cannot work in isolation and thus must be commensurate with other international treaties.

• Therefore, integration between Nagoya Protocol and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) need to consider the legislative, administrative and policy measures that cross each other’s path

People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR): PBR should aim to document folk knowledge of status, uses, history, ongoing changes and forces driving changes in biodiversity resources, and people’s perceptions of how these resources should be managed.

• PBRs can be useful to preserve the rights of farmers or communities over the traditional knowledge they may hold over a particular variety.

Road Ahead

• There is an urgent need to refer the Bill to the Standing Committee on Environment rather than a Select Committee. All the concerns raised by experts need to be addressed thoroughly.