Biodiversity Pays Back: India's ABS Framework Delivers Rs 145 Crore to Beneficiaries

• Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) is the mechanism under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 that channels a share of commercial gains from biological resources back to local custodians.
• National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has mobilized Rs 266 crore+ and disbursed ~Rs 145 crore to beneficiaries since 2008.
• Benefits have flowed to 10,500+ Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) across 23 States and 4 UTs.
• India operationalizes the global Nagoya Protocol on ABS of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) — examinable for both Prelims (institutions/Acts) and Mains (GS-III environment).