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MPSBB to expedite recovery of ABS from Ayush cos following NGT directive
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Shardul Nautiyal, Mumbai
July 21 , 2015
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Following National Green Tribunal (NGT) directive to the Madhya Pradesh
Sate Biodiversity Board (MPSBB) to comply with Access to Biological
Resources and Benefits Sharing (ABS) notification as per Biodiversity
Act, the MPSBB has now formed a committee to look into the matter and
expedite the process of recovery of ABS from the Ayush manufacturers.
NGT
which was until now awaiting a clear-cut and well-defined guideline on
ABS disposed of over a dozen cases related to non-compliance to ABS,
according to sources. In 2012, several Ayush companies had moved courts
when MPSBB asked them to deposit the stipulated amount on benefit
sharing as per the Biological Diversity (BD) Act.
Over a dozen
cases were pending with the NGT's Bhopal bench in Madhya Pradesh for
more than two years due to lack of uniform ABS guideline. The new
uniform guidelines came into effect from November 21, 2014 following the
Union ministry of environment and forests' (MoEF's) notification on
Access to Biological Resources and Benefits Sharing (ABS).
Explains
Dr R G Soni, former member secretary, MPSBB, "Due to lack of uniform
benefit sharing guidelines, which is now notified, biodiversity board
was losing royalties to the tune of thousands of crores every year since
2004. Similarly, NBA was also losing Rs.10,000
crore every year since 2004." Cases were pending at NGT for final
order, awaiting the recently notified guidelines on benefit sharing.
Dr
Soni is credited to have initiated the action during his tenure at
MPSBB following which companies moved to NGT. However, NGT approved the
actions taken by MPSBB finally.
The notification on ABS empowers
respective state biodiversity boards to determine the amount of benefit
sharing to be given by Ayush manufacturers to the state exchequer.
State
biodiversity boards have hailed the notification as a welcome change as
it will notify uniform rules thus allowing them to collect from
domestic and foreign companies a certain percentage of their ex-factory
gross sale of products using biological resources and traditional
knowledge.
As per the notification, when the biological resources
are accessed for commercial utilisation or the bio-survey and
bio-utilisation leads to commercial utilisation, the applicants shall
have the option to pay the benefit sharing ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 per
cent at the following graded percentages of the annual gross ex-factory
sale of the product which shall be worked out based on the annual gross
ex-factory sale minus government taxes.
As per the Biological
Diversity Act, 2002, an Ayush manufacturer has the responsibility to
share details of the source from where the raw material has been
procured and also a certain per cent of the revenue generated out of the
production for its sustainable use.
According to Section 7 and
24(2) of the Act, organisations extracting plant-based material for
commercial purpose without intimation to state biodiversity board are
liable under Section 55(2) of the Act and shall be punishable with
imprisonment which may extend up to three years with fine or five years
with fine or both.
Till date, over 34, 000 Biodiversity
Management Committees (BMCs) and 28 State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs)
have been set up under Section 22(2) of the Act across the country.
Local bodies have constituted the BMCs in respective states as per
Section 41 of the Act. BMCs also prepare, maintain and validate People’s
Biodiversity Register (PBR) in consultation with the local people. PBR
gives information about the details of biological resources and
traditional knowledge.
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