Discuss the three-tier institutional structure for biodiversity governance in India. How effective has it been in ensuring equitable benefit-sharing with local communities?

The Biological Diversity Act, 2002, enacted to give effect to India's obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity, rests on a decentralised three-tier architecture designed to convert commercial use of bio-resources into community gain. Its institutional design is sound, but benefit delivery remains uneven.

The three-tier architecture

• National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), Chennai: a statutory apex body regulating access by foreign persons/companies, transfer of research results, and IPR claims over Indian bio-resources; it can also oppose such IPRs abroad [1].
• State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs)/UT Biodiversity Councils: regulate access by Indian entities for commercial use through prior intimation, and may restrict activity violating conservation or equity objectives [1].
• Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) at panchayat/municipal level: conserve, document and chronicle local biodiversity through People's Biodiversity Registers (PBRs) — over 2.76 lakh BMCs and 2.72 lakh PBRs now exist [2].

Effectiveness in equitable benefit-sharing

Achievements:

• The Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) mechanism has mobilised over Rs. 266 crore, of which about Rs. 145 crore has been disbursed to beneficiaries [3].
• Biological Diversity Rules, 2024 mandate transfer of 85–90% of ABS realisations to concerned SBBs for onward disbursal, hardwiring decentralisation [3].
• Flows now reach 10,500+ BMCs across 23 States and 4 UTs, over 230 farmers and State Forest Departments [3]; recent tranches covered vegetable, oilseed and livestock germplasm accessed by seed companies [4].
• India filed its first National Report on the Nagoya Protocol, signalling compliance maturity [5].

Limitations:

• Coverage is thin — barely 4% of BMCs have received benefits; most remain paper bodies with weak capacity and funds.
• Realisation is sectorally concentrated (seeds, AYUSH, chemicals), with PBRs often poorly documented, weakening claims of traditional knowledge holders.

Thus the structure is institutionally robust but operationally shallow. Capacitating BMCs, digitising PBRs and timely SBB-level disbursal can align ABS with the NBSAP's community-centred vision [6] and SDG 15, making conservation genuinely rewarding for those who sustain it.