The National Biodiversity Authority

In one line

A body corporate at Chennai that decides who may take a biological resource out of India, and fixes what the community that kept it alive is to be paid.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 8 establishes the National Biodiversity Authority as a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal, its head office at Chennai, consisting of a Chairperson, sixteen ex officio members, four representatives from State Biodiversity Boards on rotation, five non-official members and a Member-Secretary; and section 21(1) requires it, in determining benefit sharing, to ensure that the terms secure fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of accessed biological resources, their derivatives, innovations and practices and knowledge relating to them, in accordance with mutually agreed terms between the applicant and the Biodiversity Management Committee represented by the Authority.

The body

Section 8(1) and (2): established by the Central Government by notification, a body corporate having perpetual succession and a common seal, with power to acquire, hold and dispose of movable and immovable property, and to contract, and it may sue and be sued.

Section 8(3): the head office is at Chennai, and offices elsewhere may be established with the previous approval of the Central Government. It is one of very few Central regulators headquartered outside Delhi, and the reason is that the Act was drafted for a resource that is in the country rather than in the capital.

Section 8(4), the members. A Chairperson, an eminent person having adequate knowledge, expertise and experience in the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and in matters relating to fair and equitable sharing of benefits, appointed by the Central Government.

Sixteen ex officio members representing the Ministries dealing with Agricultural Research and Education; Agriculture and Farmers Welfare; Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa, Yoga and Naturopathy and Homoeopathy; Biotechnology; Environment and Climate Change; Forests and Wildlife; the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education; Earth Sciences; Panchayati Raj; Science and Technology; Scientific and Industrial Research; and Tribal Affairs.

Four representatives from State Biodiversity Boards on a rotational basis.

Five non-official members from among experts including legal experts and scientists with special knowledge of conservation, sustainable use and benefit sharing, and representatives of industry, conservers, creators and knowledge-holders of biological resources.

And a Member-Secretary with experience in biodiversity conservation, appointed by the Central Government.

Notice who is on it. The traditional medicine ministry, Panchayati Raj, Tribal Affairs, and, among the non-officials, conservers, creators and knowledge-holders. The composition is the Act's own statement that biodiversity is held by communities and used by industry, and both are in the room.