Kerala state biodiversity board to enforce ABS provision for bioresources

Any or cooperative or buyer using bioresources for commercial purposes will have to get a NOC from theKeralastate Biodiversity board (KSBB). The State Government has decided to strictly enforce the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Provisions of the Biodiversity Act under which they will have to pay for using a bioresource for commercial purposes.

According to officials, the National biodiversity board has asked the states to implement the ABS and several states are already earning huge revenue from this. Under Section 7 of the Biological Diversity Act 2002 and Section 16 of Kerala Biological Diversity Rule, 2008, any Indian citizen or body corporate or association or registered organization in India should seek approval of KSBB for access to the collection of biological Resources from Kerala for commercial utilization or bio-survey and bio-utilization for commercial utilization.