NT NETWORK
PANAJI
Stating that the government as well as the local bodies are losing benefit sharing from the manufacturers for commercially using locally available biological resources, Forest Minister Rajendra Arlekar said the state has failed to implement concept of Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS).
Arlekar was speaking at the seminar organised by Goa State Bio-Diversity Board (GSBB) under capacity building programme for strengthening implementation of ABS, on Tuesday.
Underlining the need for creating awareness on access benefit sharing (ABS) concept, Arlekar, who is also the chairman of the GSBB, said that the people have to be made aware of the concept of equitable sharing of benefits and knowledge of bio-resources, which are used by companies for manufacturing drugs and cosmetics.
He observed that this could happen only if the village biodiversity management committee involving locals take utmost interest and start preparing public biodiversity register.
As per the National Biodiversity Act, 2002, every manufacturing unit which wants to use locally available resources for commercial purpose, is required to share benefit among concerned Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) of the state for sustainable use of bio-resources.
As per the Act, around 95 per cent of ABS is to be given to biodiversity management committee (BMC) for sustainable development of bio-resources.
Speaking on the occasion, member secretary of GSBB Pradip Sarmokadam said that state biodiversity board will soon form ABS expert committee comprising members from various fields, in order to ensure that ABS applications are properly reviewed on a case-to-case basis and to ensure due diligence in decision making.
While addressing the gathering, the project manager from National Biodiversity Authority Ishwar Poojar said that “Goa is having diverse and huge resources but unfortunately people lack the knowledge on importance of locally available resources like paddy, local varieties of vegetables, fish, plants, animals, and seaweed that can be widely accessed by companies in manufacturing seed, drugs and cosmetics after paying a certain percentage of their gross sales of products for using biological resources and traditional knowledge.”
He said that Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board charges Baba Ramdev’s firms Rs 12 crore, which include Rs 10 crore from Patanjali Yogpeeth and Rs 2 crore from its subsidiary Divya Pharmacy for using natural resources of the state for their ayurvedic products.
“Under The Biodiversity Act, the industries using natural resources for their commercial venture have to either give 5 per cent of the cost of resources they are using or 0.1 to 0.5 per cent as per their turnover to the board annually under Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) clause of the Act.”
He also specified that the ABS is applicable to bio-resources from agriculture or forest area. An agriculture bio-resource when utilised for general commodities, no ABS is applicable. However, when utilised for commercial purposes for use in drugs and cosmetic products, ABS is applicable to it.