Suryaa National Desk: The National Biodiversity Authority aims to promote biodiversity conservation, sustainable use of natural resources and welfare of local people in the country... The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has taken a key decision aimed at promoting biodiversity conservation, sustainable use of natural resources and welfare of local people in the country. Under the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) mechanism, 29 State Biodiversity Councils along with one Union Territory Biodiversity Council have received a total of Rs. 1,18,61,655 has been released. These funds are allocated based on contributions received from prominent seed companies that have conducted commercial research on agricultural biological resources such as maize, rice, sajja and cotton. Out of these allocated funds, the state of Maharashtra has received the highest amount of Rs. 19.46 lakh while Rajasthan got Rs. 13.97 lakhs, Madhya Pradesh Rs.
13.32 lakhs and Karnataka Rs. 10.49 lakh funds received. As far as Telugu states are concerned, Telangana will get Rs. 9.55 lakh has been allocated, while Andhra Pradesh has been allotted Rs. 4.27 lakhs have been released. These financial allocations are based on the recommendations of an expert committee based on the official statistics of cultivated area of crops published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare. Leading companies like Corteva Crop India, Pioneer, Limagrain, Syngenta and Crystal Crop Protection are major partners in this fundraising. The NBA clarified that these funds should be utilized for the works prescribed under Section 32(2) of the Biodiversity Act, 2002.
This amount is to be spent only on local biodiversity documentation, conservation of natural resources, strengthening of local institutions, awareness seminars and programs to improve the livelihood of local rural people. Under benefit sharing by agriculture sector so far Rs. 86 crores was collected, the total release of funds provided by NBA to various departments was Rs. 203 crores crossed. The Union Environment Ministry said that this development is proof that India is leading the way in protecting its biodiversity and returning the proceeds from companies using those resources to the local community. It is noteworthy that these funds are released ahead of the International Conference on Biological Diversity (COP17) to be held in Armenia from October 19.