ABS

As per section 7 of BDA, 2002 and Rule 14 of the Uttarakhand Biological Diversity Rules, 2015, all biological resource-based industries, are required to intimate & take approval of Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board before accessing the biological resource from the state. Indian Citizens or companies accessing biological resources and associated knowledge for purpose of research, biological resources normally traded as commodities as notified by Govt. of India and conventional breeding or traditional practices in use in agriculture, horticulture, poultry, animal husbandry, etc. are exempted from the purview of BDA, 2002.
Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Govt. of India has notified Guidelines for Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) for Biological Resources and associated Traditional Knowledge (TK) and Benefit Sharing Regulations, 2014 vide Gazette Notification dated 21.11.2014.
This entails that if an industry uses bioresources from any area of Uttarakhand for commercial purpose, it will have to pay back a nominal percentage of its benefits for promoting biodiversity conservation in that very area of the State so as to ensure sustainable utilization of State’s biodiversity.
All the Industrial units, which are accessing biological resource from the Uttarakhand state such as Herbal Industries (Ayurvedic Medicines, Cosmetics, Oil, Dyes etc.), Food products & beverages, Pharmaceutical & botanical products, Agro based industries and Forest based units, come under the purview of BDA, 2002.
The Board has got the BMCs constituted at all levels and the existing biodiversity at district, block as well as village level through preparation of People’s Biodiversity Register has also been got mapped through relevant State Development Departments. All the existing industries, herbal units etc. utilizing biological resources as raw material have also been inventorized and this information is being updated on regular basis based on the existing data of Ministry of Ayush, GoI and National Medicinal Plant Board.
As the requisite institutional mechanism and legal frame work as envisaged under the Act has been established by the Board, the next step required to be taken is the implementation of Access Benefit Sharing (ABS) mechanism prescribed in the Act. As per rule 14 of Uttarakhand Biological Diversity Rules, 2015, all Indian Citizen or industries, associations and organizations registered in India would give prior intimation and take approval from Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board for accessing any biological resource from Uttarakhand for commercial utilization by submitting application in the prescribed form along with fee of Rs. 10,000/- in form of the Demand Draft.

National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), SBBs/UTBCs and BMCs are the key regulators at the national, state and local level respectively which facilitate appropriate access to bio-resources by users (who require access for commercial utilization, undertaking research etc.) and are responsible for sharing a fair and equitable portion of the benefits with the providers or communities (who are custodians of bio-resources and dependent on them for sustaining their livelihood) of bio-resources for conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

Procedure for ABS

Procedure for access to collection of biological resources for commercial utilization
As per Section 7, 23 & 24 of Biological Diversity Act,2002 read with Rule 14 of the Uttarakhand Biological diversity Rules, 2015, any citizen of India or a Body Corporate, Organization or Association registered in India who are accessing/collecting biological resources from the state for commercial utilization, are required to intimate & take approval of Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board.
All the industries, manufacturers, traders accessing/utilizing biological resources from Uttarakhand or having their manufacturing and trading unit in Uttarakhand are hereby notified to comply with the legal provisions of the Act and submit an application to the Board in the Form-I appended to Uttarakhand Biological Diversity Rules, 2015 and Form-A appended with Guidelines for Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) for Biological Resources and associated Traditional Knowledge (TK) and Benefit Sharing Regulations, 2014 along with a fee of Rs. 10,000/- in the form of a Demand Draft in favour of “Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board” payable at Dehradun. The application along with the prescribed fee shall be submitted to Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board within 6 months of issuance of this notice.
Voluntary disclosure for access of biological resources for the purposes of research before or after accessing/obtaining biological resources or traditional knowledge of such biological resources, occurring within Uttarakhand State should be given in prescribed form (Form-IA) along with a Cheque or Demand Draft amounting to Rs. 100/- in favour of the Uttarakhand biodiversity Board payable at Chandigarh.
As per ABS Regulation Guidelines, 2014, the benefit sharing obligations on purchase price of biological resources are as under:
Traders: 3.0% of the Purchase Price
Manufacturers: 5.0% of the purchase price of the biological resources

Option to pay the benefit sharing at the following graded percentages of the annual gross ex-factory sale of the product minus Govt. taxes:

S.No.	Annual Gross Ex-Factory Sale of Product	Benefits Sharing Component
1.	Up to Rs. 1 Crore	0.1%
2	Rs. 1 Crore to 3 Crore	0.2%
3	above Rs. 3 Crore	0.3%

Sharing of Benefits is to be carried out as under: Approval granted by National Biodiversity Authority, Govt. of India.
95% of the accrued benefits shall go to concerned BMC/benefit claimers
5% of the accrued benefits to SBB as administrative charges.

ABS-Docs
Title	View / Download
First ABS Agreement signed between Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board And Habib Cosmetic Pvt. Ltd.	Accessible Version : View (505 KB) /
Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) for commercial users of “biological resources” (Access and Benefit Sharing)	Accessible Version : View (166 KB) /
Download Form-I	Accessible Version : View (336 KB) /
Download Declaration	Accessible Version : View (68 KB) /
Workflow chart (SoP) for commercial users of “ Biological Resource” Annual compliance of Access & Benefit Sharing (ABS)	Accessible Version : View (191 KB) /