Discuss the role of Biodiversity Management Committees in realising India's commitments under the Nagoya Protocol and KMGBF Target 13.

Local bodies set up Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. BMCs form the base of India's three-tier ABS structure: NBA, then SBBs/UTBCs, then BMCs [1]. They are the tier closest to the people who hold resources. This makes them the vehicle for applying the Nagoya Protocol's consent and benefit-sharing rules at the local level [4]. They also serve Target 13's call for a "significant increase of the benefits shared" by 2030 [3].

Role in Nagoya Protocol commitments

• Documentation: People's Biodiversity Registers (PBRs) record local species and traditional knowledge (TK). This builds the evidence for consent and guards against biopiracy [1].
• Consent and terms: Nagoya requires prior informed consent from local communities and mutually agreed terms (Arts. 6–7) [4]. Users now agree benefit terms with the BMC represented by NBA [2].
• Receiving benefits: More than Rs 200 crore has been disbursed, reaching over 10,500 BMCs. Where individual claimants cannot be identified, the money funds development of the areas the resources came from [1].

Role in KMGBF Target 13

• Scaling benefits: Over Rs 278 crore has been realised since 2008. Crop-linked releases, such as Rs 15.52 crore for mustard and Rs 6.67 crore for cotton varieties, send value back to farming communities [1].
• Conservation finance: BMCs channel ABS funds into habitat restoration, community gene banks and traditional varieties. This links Target 13 with Targets 4, 5 and 9 under NBSAP 2024–30 [1].
• Livelihood convergence: ABS funding is linked with PM-JANMAN and Van Dhan, which widens benefits for tribal communities [1].

Constraints

• Low receipts: Only Rs 12.93 crore was received in 2025–26. Releases depended on money collected in earlier years [1].
• Weaker community voice: Because the NBA represents BMCs, communities have less direct say. Users of codified TK (an undefined term) and AYUSH practitioners are also exempt from sharing benefits [2].
• New frontier: Target 13 now covers digital sequence information [3], which is beyond what a village-level BMC can track.

BMCs are the link that turns India's global ABS commitments into money reaching local communities. To make that work, the government should build BMC capacity, complete and digitise PBRs, define "codified TK", and consult BMCs directly on benefit terms. It should also prepare for DSI-based benefit flows. These steps would make BMCs real partners in conservation, in the spirit of the 73rd Amendment's decentralisation and SDG 15.