The Environment Ministry on Tuesday announced that the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has released nearly Rs 43 lakh in funds collected as patenting fees to benefit conservation measures at the grassroots levels across a select few states in India.
Calling the capital amount Patent-linked Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) funds, the ministry highlighted, “The funds were generated from Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) applications that utilised Indian biological resources for obtaining patents and commercialising the innovation.”
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Outlining the purpose of these funds, the ministry noted that the money will support biodiversity conservation, sustainable resource management, and community-based livelihood strengthening. Local conservation initiatives, including activities such as documenting traditional knowledge and creating and updating People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBR), will be supported.
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At present, the amount has reached the State Biodiversity Boards, the ministry noted, and will reach the end beneficiaries once it is transferred to the Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs). Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal are the sixteen beneficiary states that have received the funds.
The major recipients include Andhra Pradesh SBB [Rs 20,66,553], Tamil Nadu SBB (Rs 16,79,482), Odisha SBB (Rs 2,09,965], Uttar Pradesh SBB (Rs 91,500), and Madhya Pradesh SBB (Rs 79,547), according to the press statement.
“It marks a significant step in ensuring that benefits derived from innovations based on Indian biological resources are equitably shared, particularly with communities, knowledge holders, and custodians who have conserved these resources for generations,” the ministry claimed.
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