Why in Broadcast?

• 55 The National Campaign for Updation and Verification of People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR) was launched in Goa on the 22 May (World Biodiversity Day).

Aim

• It aims to establish a People’s Biodiversity Register in every village of India under Mission Life.

What does it means

• PBR is a comprehensive record of locally available Bio-resource of a particular area or village.
• The bio-resource includes the landscape and demography of any area.
• It is prepared by the Biodiversity Management Committees in consultation with the local communities.

Objective

• PBR is designed as a tool for the formal maintenance of local knowledge with proper validation.
• It is also a record of knowledge, perception, attitude of people about natural resources, plants and animals, their utilization and conservation in a village or a panchayat.

Status of PBR in India

• 2,67,608 PBRs have been prepared by the Biodiversity Management Committees in different states.
• The Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change is also running a program to digitize the PBRs (e-PBR).
• Kolkata was first metropolitan city to prepare a detailed PBR.

Significance

• PBR is a step towards the documentation & preservation of India’s rich biodiversity.
• It is the first step towards bridging the gap between intellectual property rights of local people and benefits derived from genetic resources.
• It accumulates the traditional knowledge about biodiversity and enables the local communities to share those benefits.
• It is prepared in accordance with the vision of Mission LiFE (Lifestyle For Environment).
• It also serves as a standard to track the performance level of environment focused strategies.

Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC)

• The BMCs are constituted as per the Biological Diversity Act 2002.
• They are created for “promoting conservation, sustainable use and documentation of biological diversity” by local bodies across the country.
• They have been constituted by the local bodies in States and Union Territories.
• They are entrusted with the preparation of the PBRs in the consultations of local communities.
• It is headed by a chairperson nominated by the local body.
• The members of committee can’t be more than 6 persons in which 1/3 and 18% should belong to women and SC/STs respectively.

Future of PBRs

The national campaign for PBR would assist in following areas:

• Tracing the Habitat change.
• Preventing the Biopiracy.
• To understand the overlap of cultural and natural biodiversity.
• Promote the Inclusive approach in executive exercise.