The third National Biodiversity Congress that began here on Wednesday has charted out a roadmap for decentralised biodiversity management, with panchayats urged to impose a levy for commercial exploitation of biological resources.
The proposal has, however, run into stiff resistance from industry.
Addressing a Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC) meet organised as part of the conference, Chairman, Kerala State Biodiversity Board, Oommen V. Oommen said Kerala had failed to implement the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) system for commercial utilisation of bio-resources.
“We had sent notice to more than 2,000 industrial units in the State asking for compliance yet failed to make progress. Other States such as Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are way ahead in implementing the ABS mechanism.”
Pointing out that local bodies stood to benefit from the initiative, Dr. Oommen said the levy would help them take up conservation activities at the local level. BMCs were directed to set up the local biodiversity fund at the earliest, with the chairman and secretary as joint account holders.
“We are pushing ahead with plans to implement the system this year. The government has offered all support,” Dr. Oommen told The Hindu on the sidelines of the conference.
Last year, the KSBB had identified 2,694 industrial units in the State that would be liable to pay a levy for access to bio-resources and associated traditional knowledge. These included Ayurveda drug companies, tea and coffee manufacturers, agro-based units, food and fruit processing centres, leather, cashew, textiles, paper, rubber, coir, spices, wood and bamboo-based industries and exporters of these products.
The companies were required to plough back a portion of their sales revenue to the Local Biodiversity Fund, in return for commercial exploitation of plants, animals, micro organisms, their parts, and genetic material (excluding human genetic material).
The KSBB’s efforts to implement the ABS mechanism through a consensus approach failed to take off following stiff opposition from industry, which argued that it would add to their financial burden and weigh down their prospects of becoming competitive in the global market.
