RAJYA SABHA OKAYS BIODIVERSITY BILL

From BIO-IPR docserver
_______________________________________________________

TITLE: Rajya Sabha Okays Biodiversity Bill
AUTHOR: Chandrika Mago
PUBLICATION: Times of India
DATE: 12 December 2002
URL:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/comp/articleshow?artid=30999722
________________________________________________________

RAJYA SABHA OKAYS BIODIVERSITY BILL

Chandrika Mago, Times News Network
12 December 2002

NEW DELHI: Over two years after the Biodiversity Bill was first introduced,
and a year after Parliament's standing committee cleared it, it has got the
final stamp of approval from both Houses. However, MPs, environmentalists
and even officials are not fully satisfied with it.

The Bill, passed by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday is the first such
legislation by any of the 12 megadiverse countries. It seeks to check
biopiracy, protect biological diversity and local growers through a
three-tier structure of national and state boards and local committees.
These will regulate access to plant and animal genetic resources and share
the benefits.

The proposed national biodiversity authority (NBA) will deal with all cases
of access by foreigners. Its approval will be required before obtaining any
intellectual property rights on an invention based on a biological resource
from India, or on its traditional knowledge. It may oppose such rights given
in other countries.

Benefit-sharing could take various forms, from joint ownership to transfer
of technology or a venture capital fund for benefit claimers, monetary or
other compensation. The NBA will enjoy the powers of a civil court. In
addition, the Centre may issue directives to a state if it feels a
naturally-rich area is threatened by "overuse, abuse or neglect".

Concerns among MPs ranged from the "too little-too late" argument to fears
of a bureaucratic set-up and queries on the rationale for basing the NBA's
headquarters in Chennai.

Among volunteer groups, Gene Campaign's Suman Sahai describes it as a
"confused effort to put in elements which have been part of the debate.
There are many elements which are at odds with each other and with existing
legislation".

Ashish Kothari, who is helping the government draft a national biodiversity
strategy, is less caustic.

He believes a number of provisions, used properly, could be useful. "What is
very important is to quickly develop rules for the various provisions with
public participation, including communities."

Even some environment ministry officials agree that this Bill is "weak in
conservation". But there is nothing, they argue, that tight rule-making
won't solve. This was the gist of minister Baalu's assurance to the Rajya
Sabha -- everything will be taken care of while framing the rules.

Sahai is particularly worried about the effects on research, given the
permissions required, and the absence of a definitive stance on intellectual
property rights, which may fritter hard-won gains.

She is caustic about the new concept of heritage sites, wondering how this
will be different from the existing protected area system of national parks
and sanctuaries. There is a probability of overlap with other laws. For
instance, the new law permits notification of a threatened species and
biodiversity heritage sites.

________________________________________________________

TITLE: Indian Greens Flay Bill for Plant Protection
AUTHOR: Kalyani
PUBLICATION: OneWorld South Asia
DATE: 9 December 2002
URL:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/oneworld/20021209/wl_oneworld/10502_1039437185
________________________________________________________

INDIAN GREENS FLAY BILL FOR PLANT PROTECTION

Kalyani, OneWorld South Asia
9 December 2002

Environmentalists Monday criticized a proposed Indian law for preserving the
country's rich trove of plants, saying that it was aimed more at helping
multi-national companies (MNCs) than local communities.

The Biological Diversity Bill, 2000, passed by a section of legislators last
week, flouted the UN Convention on Biodiversity which seeks to protect
people's rights to and knowledge of plants, the environmentalists said.
India was a signatory to the convention which ecological bodies believed had
taken shape to protect developing nations' forest resources from MNCs
interested in marketing them as medicines and other products.

"But instead of helping the people, this bill will do nothing but add to
their miseries," said the chairperson of the Rural Litigation Entitlement
Kendra (RLEK), an Indian non-governmental organization (NGO) working on
issues such as human rights and environment. "It will take away their rights
to the resources that surround them, and give MNCs a free hand," he said.

The bill, which has to be passed by the upper house of the Indian Parliament
before it becomes a law, says that people who are not citizens or residents
of India and corporate bodies not registered in India cannot "obtain any
biological resource occurring in India or knowledge associated thereto for
research or for commercial utilization or for bio-survey and bio-utilization."

However, it makes exceptions in certain cases which, the environmentalists
feared, would end up giving MNCs free access to the country's plants and
herbs. A section of the bill states that the rules restricting access will
not be applicable to collaborative research projects provided the Federal
government approved of the projects.

"This just means that the Indian government is legalizing bio-piracy," said
Vandana Shiva, who heads a non-profit organization called the Research
Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology. "This clause will let MNCs
do what they want with Indian plants as long as the Indian government and
the bureaucracy have the final say on whether or not permission is to be
granted to MNCs for so-called research," said Shiva.

The bill proposes the formation of a National Biodiversity Authority -- a
federal body that would decide on patents. Under the bill, local authorities
would decide on people's rights to forest resources and other plants. "But
this would deny the people their right to local biological resources," said
Kaushal.

Shiva added the common people, who were anyway intimidated by government
rules on forestry which denied them access to resources, would not approach
government authorities for permission to forage for plants. "The law would
end up making criminals out of the common people," said Shiva.

"The law is aimed at stopping a poor woman from collecting fodder for her
goat," said Shiva. She pointed out that villagers were being harassed by
local forest officials even before the bill was passed by the lower house of
Parliament. "Now the authorities are gearing up for more of the same kind of
bullying," she said.

Access to plants and forest produce is an important issue in India, where
more than three out of every five people live in rural areas and rely
heavily on local plants, for both their livelihood and as cattle feed.

Plants are also used in many homes for their medicinal properties. According
to Indian government figures, some 8000 species of medicinal plants were in
use by local communities in India.

India supplies 12 per cent of the world's requirements of medicinal plants.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said that if "conserved and
sustainably utilized, India's rich medicinal plant heritage and an estimated
40,000 herbal formulations, have the potential to contribute to the primary
healthcare of millions of Indians."

But the environmentalists feared that the proposed law would end up
increasing corruption because government officials often sought bribes from
the local people to allow them to forage for forest resources. "Now, the
entire system is being placed in the hands of bureaucrats, so we can only
expect corruption to increase if the bill turns into a law," said Kaushal.

Shiva said that the impact of the biodiversity bill would be discussed at
the forthcoming Asia Social Forum, which would be examining issues related
to development and economic liberalization. The Forum will be held in
Hyderabad in southern India from January 2 to 7 next year.


Source:
Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN).
http://www.grain.org

Reply