India to ratify Nagoya bio-diversity protocol

India said on Monday that it will ratify in two years the Nagoya Supplementary Protocol that guarantees bio diversity conservation and lays down procedures for liability and redress in terms of risks to humans from living modified organisms.

Long process

"It is a long and complex process and takes time. We are currently holding inter-ministerial consultations and are considering inputs received from other ministries,” MF Farooqui, special secretary at ministry of environment and forests, told mediapersons on the sidelines of the United Nation's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Hyderabad on Monday.

“We have shown our intent and we will ratify the protocol in the next two years,” he added.

One of the fifty

India is one of the 50 countries that has signed the supplementary protocol.
While the protocol requires fifty ratifications to come into force, only three parties have ratified it until now.

Farooqui also said that the Central government is in the process of starting a People's Biodiversity registry with a budget of Rs 300 crore, which has been approved by the expenditure finance committee recently.

"The registry initiative is part of the National Biological Law. The idea is to codify the traditional knowledge,” the special secretary said.

“The registries will be maintained right at the grass-root levels," the special secretary said.

Despite its land area of 2.5 per cent, India still has 7-8 per cent of the world's biodiversity, Farooqui said.

This is notwithstanding the fact that the country had 18 per cent of the world's human and cattle population.