Biodiversity Management Committee — Intellectual Property Rights II Notes

Biodiversity Management Committee

At the very bottom of the pyramid, closest to the forests and fields, sits the Biodiversity Management Committee — a village-level body that writes down what grows where. Its humble register, the People’s Biodiversity Register, is India’s front-line defence against bio-piracy: you cannot steal what has already been documented as belonging to a community.

The BMC — the local tier

A. Constitution — s.41

Under s.41, every local body (panchayat, municipality) shall constitute a Biodiversity Management Committee within its area, for promoting conservation, sustainable use and documentation of biological diversity.

B. Functions

• Prepare the People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR) — a documented record of local biological resources, their uses, and associated traditional knowledge.
• Advise on access — the NBA and SBB must consult the BMC before granting approvals for access to resources within its area (s.41(2)).
• Levy collection fees for accessing bio-resources for commercial use within its area.
• Conserve local biodiversity, including heritage species and habitats.

Section 41(1): “Every local body shall constitute a Biodiversity Management Committee within its area for the purpose of promoting conservation, sustainable use and documentation of biological diversity …”

In Simple Terms: The BMC is the grassroots tier. Its main job is to document local biodiversity in the People’s Biodiversity Register, so communities can be identified for benefit-sharing and outsiders cannot quietly appropriate the knowledge. The NBA/SBB must consult it before granting access.

🧩 WORKED EXAMPLE — why the PBR matters

Facts. A company seeks to access a medicinal herb traditionally used in a particular village.

Rule. s.41 — the BMC documents local resources/knowledge in the PBR; the NBA/SBB consult the BMC before approving access, and benefit-sharing flows to the documented community.

Apply. Because the village’s use is recorded in the PBR, the community is identifiable as a benefit claimer, and access is granted only after consulting the BMC.

Conclusion. The PBR both prevents bio-piracy and channels benefit-sharing to the right community.

flowchart TD
    ROOT["Three-tier structure"]:::root
    ROOT --> A["NBA (national) — s.8"]:::leaf
    ROOT --> B["SBB (state) — s.22"]:::leaf
    ROOT --> C["BMC (local body) — s.41: People's Biodiversity Register"]:::leaf
    classDef root fill:#FFF8DC,stroke:#000,stroke-width:1px,color:#000;
    classDef leaf fill:#E6F3FF,stroke:#1E3A8A,color:#000;
    linkStyle default stroke:#888,stroke-width:1px;

Case Laws

• Divya Pharmacy v Union of India (2018) — recognised the role of communities/BMCs in the benefit-sharing chain.

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