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PEOPLE’S BIODIVERSITY REGISTER:
Outline of a Methodology Manual
Madhav Gadgil
Centre for Ecological Sciences
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore 560012, India
[email protected]
http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/cesmg/
in collaboration with
K.P.Achar, Harish Bhat, Shubhada Deshmukh, Ajay Dolke, Yogini Dolke,
Gundappa, Indiramma, Vijay Edlabadkar, Satish Gogulwar, Yogesh Gokhale,
Shrikanth Gunaga, Nilesh Heda, Mohan H Hiralal, M.B.Naik, Kaustubh
Pandharipande, S.G.Patgar, Ramakrishnappa, P.R.Seshagiri Rao, V.V.Sivan,
S.Srinidhi, K.A.Subramaniam, Devaji Tofa, Yetiraju
“I have said that knowledge is the direction for action and action the effort of knowledge, and
that knowledge is the beginning of action and action the completion of knowledge.”
Wang Yang-Ming (1527): Instructions for Practical Living
September 2003
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Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Involving people...................................................................................................................... 4 Managing information............................................................................................................. 5 Next steps ................................................................................................................................ 8
New challenges ............................................................................................................................... 9 Patterns in History................................................................................................................. 10 Convention on Biological Diversity...................................................................................... 13 Biological Diversity Act........................................................................................................ 16 Information needs.................................................................................................................. 27 People’s Biodiversity Registers ............................................................................................ 30
Biodiversity information system ................................................................................................... 32 PBR process .................................................................................................................................. 41
Biodiversity Management Committees................................................................................. 41 Suggested institutional framework for the post BDAct process ........................................... 45 Organizing the process .......................................................................................................... 47 Identifying Study Sites .......................................................................................................... 47 Rapport building.................................................................................................................... 50 Prior Informed Consent......................................................................................................... 52 Recording information .......................................................................................................... 53 Managing information........................................................................................................... 54 Commonly recorded information .......................................................................................... 55
The setting ..................................................................................................................................... 56 Peoplescape ................................................................................................................................... 57
Nomadic populations............................................................................................................. 61 Ecological/ economic Processes.................................................................................................... 62 Earthscape ..................................................................................................................................... 63 Lifescape ....................................................................................................................................... 71
Focal taxa .............................................................................................................................. 74 Undertaking quantitative assessment .................................................................................... 83
Knowledge associated with biodiversity....................................................................................... 85 Biological Diversity Act........................................................................................................ 85 Next steps: ............................................................................................................................. 88 Recording knowledge............................................................................................................ 90
Ecosystem Management................................................................................................................ 91 Documenting Management of Living Resources.................................................................. 92 Learning by Doing ................................................................................................................ 95 Case studies: Mendha-Lekha village, Gadchiroli district, Maharashtra ............................... 97
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Introduction
India is a land rich in diversity of life and related knowledge, a heritage that is being rapidly
eroded today. A significant response to this challenge has been the recent enactment of the
Biological Diversity Act, an act that has created significant space for involving people at the
grass-roots in conserving, sustainably using and sharing in the benefits flowing from the
biodiversity resources and associated knowledge in their own localities. This Act is a
response to a number of new, emerging concerns, the result of new developments in
technology, in particular, biotechnology and information technology, and the ongoing
degradation of the environment. These developments imply that all organisms, even the
seemingly insignificant ones like germs, worms, weeds and mice, are potentially resources of
considerable value, worthy of efforts at conservation, supported by proper documentation,
and of securing rights over associated intellectual property. This has prompted the
development of two often conflicting international agreements, namely, the Trade Related
Intellectual Property Rights provisions (TRIPS) of GATT and the Convention on Biological
Diversity(CBD). The latter has two notable stipulations, namely the sovereign rights of
countries of origin over their genetic/ biological diversity resources, and the acceptance of the
need to share benefits flowing from commercial utilization of biological diversity resources
with holders of traditional knowledge and practices of conservation and sustainable
utilization of these resources. There is as yet no proper resolution at the international level of
how these will be implemented in view of their divergence from those of normal IPR and
TRIPS provisions. The Biological Diversity Act is a part of the Indian attempt to make
headway and to act on these two important provisions of the Convention on Biological
Diversity.
Clearly, we need to look after the ecological well being of all of our lands and waters,
not just the few remaining natural forest habitats, but also our farm lands and irrigation tanks,
overgrazed pastures and eroded hill slopes, rivers and seas. We need to carefully plan on
conserving, sustainably using and restoring the biological diversity across the length and
breadth of the Indian sub-continent. We also need to conserve and benefit from the
knowledge of uses and the traditions of conservation of this biological diversity. Finally we
must ensure that benefits flowing from our heritage of biodiversity and related folk
knowledge percolate down to the people at the grass-roots.
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Involving people
This formidable task can only be undertaken through making conservation,
sustainable use and equitable sharing of benefits of biodiversity a people’s movement. For
biological diversity can be cared for only with the co-operation of masses of our people,
many of whom still depend on it for their day-to-day sustenance. In recognition of this
reality, the Biological Diversity Act proposes to decentralize management of biodiversity to
the level of Panchayati Raj institutions, municipalities and city corporations, establishing
Biodiversity Management Committees (BMC) in these local bodies to complement the State
Biodiversity Boards and the National Biodiversity Authority. Much of the knowledge of the
status and dynamics of biodiversity also resides with the people at the grassroots. Thus the
only reliable information on the status and dynamics of the natural medicinal plant
populations, albeit limited to their own localities, resides with forest produce collectors who
are employed by agents of pharmaceutical companies, or with folk practitioners of herbal
remedies. Since effective action can only flow from a sound base of knowledge, we need to
support the management effort by a countrywide system of inventorying and periodically
monitoring biodiversity along with the associated knowledge. Given the tremendous variation
from place to place in the distribution and uses of biodiversity, this documentation has to be
highly locality and time specific. The Biodiversity Management Committees at the level of
the Local Bodies will have to undertake this detailed documentation.
This process of documentation and decentralized management will obviously have to
be designed and driven by local community members themselves. However, at the moment,
local community members may not be adequately motivated and equipped to initiate and
carry through the process entirely on their own over much of the country. Furthermore the
process would need technical inputs, for instance, in correlating local with scientific names of
plant and animal species, in dealing with intellectual property rights issues, or in taking
advantage of modern information and communication technology tools in organizing local
information and in accessing outside information. Local communities would also need
administrative support in asserting their rights over natural resources. Hence, the
documentation effort will have to involve, along side the community members, many
different groups of players: [1] Workers with Community-based Organizations and Non-
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governmental Organizations, [2] School and college teachers and students, [3] Government
functionaries, [4] Technical experts in the area of life sciences, resource management and
information management.
The rules being formulated under the Biological Diversity Act propose to term such
local level documentation as “People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR)”. It will be one, albeit
the most novel and significant, of the elements of the overall “Biodiversity Information
System (BIS)” that will have to be developed at the national level. The BIS will have to
incorporate (a) Scientific information such as that residing with Botanical Survey of India, or
National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resource, and (b) Information on prices, trade and markets
at a variety of levels from local to the global. BIS will also have to provide links to
information on technologies and intellectual property rights with a global dimension. The
Biodiversity Information System must serve the interests of the environment and people of
India everywhere, so it must ensure good flows of information, not only from local to state to
national levels, but also from global and national to state and local levels. Thus, local
communities stand to benefit from access to global data as well as data from other localities:
1.To implement sustainable resource use practices, 2.To organize local level value addition,
3.To decide on marketing strategies, and so on. Similarly, local data need to be exchanged
with outside 1. For cross-checking, 2.To help compile an overall picture, 3. To decide on
benefit sharing claims, 4.For scientific research purposes, and so on. Of course, not all the
information brought into the folds of the Biodiversity Information System should be allowed
to be accessible without any restrictions to the public. Certain information, such as on
innovations pertinent to biodiversity, both at grass-roots, and in the more sophisticated
industrial sector, will have to be maintained as confidential information with appropriate data
security arrangements. Most importantly, the process would have to be so organized that
local people would be fully informed of all implications while sharing information and will
have the final say on who will access the data made available by them and on what terms.
Managing information
The PBR’s are a collection of pertinent information. They should not therefore be thought
of simply as one time printed documents, but should rather be visualized as local level,
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continually up-dated databases with links to a country-wide system. PBR’s may be expected
to serve a variety of functions:
a. Help local community arrive at management decisions on their own, e.g., on
regulating grazing on community grazing lands, or, in cities, deciding on maintenance
of lake or riverside vegetation,
b. Help local bodies propose development schemes, e.g., to take up plantations in the
catchment of an irrigation pond using multiple species of local choice,
c. Help people access information of significance in management of their crops and
livestock, e.g. on outbreaks of pests and diseases in neighbouring localities,
d. Help people access information on availability of seeds of various traditional crop
cultivars in different regions, and special properties of these cultivars,
e. Help people widely share their special knowledge of uses and management of
biodiversity resources, for instance, use of catch crops in pest management,
f. Help local people access information on technologies of relevance to better
management of biodiversity resources, e.g. technologies of harvesting honey from
wild honeybee hives without undue destruction of the bee colony, or in cities,
technologies of developing terrace gardens,
g. Help local people access information on prices and on marketing opportunities for
their biodiversity resources,
h. Help ascertain people’s perceptions relating to specific management issues, e.g., on
how to regulate destructive fishing practices such as dynamiting. This could help draft
suitable regulatory measures at the state level on the basis of the Explosives Control
Act,
i. Help continuation of traditional practices of conservation and sustainable use of
biodiversity by facilitating their recognition and incorporation in the Biodiversity
Management Plans of local BMC’s,
j. Help empower women and other weaker sections of communities intimately linked to
biodiversity by involving them in the process of documentation and development of
the Biodiversity Management Plans of local BMC’s,
k. Help preserve the biodiversity related knowledge of people for the posterity through
its codification and recording,
l. Help people publicize, if they so desire, the nature of their special knowledge without
disclosing full details, thereby opening avenues for arriving at contractual agreement
with commercial enterprises interested in access to such knowledge,
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m. Help local communicates claim rewards in national conservation programmes, e.g. of
on-farm maintenance of crop genetic diversity,
n. Feed in good information from the local level to contribute to the broader information
base, e.g., facilitate collating information on status of a species of medicinal plant
from a number of villages from different eco-regions to assess its status over a larger
region,
o. Help estimate the level of commercial demand for species of economic value being
brought to markets in different towns through information on prevalent prices and
quantities,
p. Help resolve disputes which may pertain to: [1] rights of local communities over
natural resources vis-à-vis nighbours, nomadic communities, government agencies, or
[2] rights of nomadic communities over natural resources vis-à-vis resident local
communities, government agencies, [3] claims over rewards, [4] benefit sharing
claims,
Several of these functions overlap with a number of other on-going activities related to
planning for management of natural resources, in particular at the decentralized level. Such
activities include micro-planning for management of village forests, watershed planning in
many parts of the country and preparation of Panchayat Development Reports in Kerala.
Proper links should be established to these processes in organizing the preparation of PBRs.
To sum up, People’s Biodiversity Registers will be:
!"Local level documentation of biodiversity and associated knowledge, along with all
related management issues.
!"Generated through a broad-based process designed and led by local community, but
also involving technical and administrative inputs as appropriate.
!"In Indian languages and as and where appropriate also in English.
!"Continually up-dated databases, not just one-time printed documents.
!"Drawing on use of computers and internet as appropriate, though not all components
of the PBR need to be computerized, and the information may take a variety of forms
including songs, paintings or seed banks.
!"Organized so as to generate a variety of products desired by the people, including
reports in response to specific queries, or videotapes.
!"Components desired to be shared with wider society, (which need not include all
information collected, since some may be maintained under restricted local access)
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will constitute a distributed PBR Database which will contribute to the nation-wide
Biodiversity Information System.
!"Computerized components of PBR’s may be based in computers at all Panchayats and
Municipalities with servers located at district level.
!"In part linked to the countrywide BIS, ensuring information flows in all directions.
Next steps
Of course, passage of an act is only the first step. After all, our Pollution Control Acts
have not rid us of all pollution, nor has the Extension of Panchayat Raj Act to Scheduled
Areas effectively empowered tribal communities. There are several lacunae in the Biological
Diversity Act itself, as well as in the proposed rules. The Act was initially designed as an
umbrella act, and as a herald of a new age it would have overridden many of the earlier acts.
As passed, however, it only has the status of a complementary act and will have to be
operated side by side with a whole range of other acts, including, in particular, those
pertaining to forest, wild life, panchayati raj institutions, plant varieties and farmers’ rights,
and patents. There are a number of potential conflicts in the working of these various acts that
need to be resolved carefully to ensure that the Biological Diversity Act can effectively
address the many new and significant challenges. In particular, one needs to guard against the
many entrenched interests ensuring that the National Biodiversity Authority and the various
State Biodiversity Boards end up being ineffectual because of the provision in the Act that
they must accept all directives of the Central and State Governments. At the ground level the
proliferation of committees of Gram Panchayats is already posing difficulties. There are
many other possibilities, too, of loopholes that may render the act toothless. Finally, there is
always a danger that the regulations may merely breed harassment and corruption, rather than
effective action.
Yet there is no doubt that this Act represents valuable opportunities, given the
growing strength of our democratic institutions and the growing confidence in our
technological competence to contribute to nation building. It could help create effective
platforms to take care of environment right down to the grass-roots level, to organize a
scientific enterprise reaching out to all our people and to engage our folk ecologists in a
fruitful endeavour to nurture our heritage of biodiversity and associated knowledge. It also
presents an opportunity to take the information technology revolution down to the villages
and to bridge the digital divide. Therefore, the manifold difficulties that are easy enough to
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visualize should not become excuses for doing nothing, but instead should be treated as
challenges to be converted into opportunities.
New challenges Twenty-first century, a century of biotechnology and information technology. India
could play its rightful role on the world stage in this new century, with its great wealth of
living and human resources. The only culture to have the total number of species in the right
ball park.
Jalajah navalakshani, sthavarah lakshavimshatih,
Krumayoh rudrasamkhyakam, pakshinam dashalakshakam
Trimshlakshani pashavah, chaturlakshani manushah
Sarvayonim parityajya, brahmayonim tatobhyagat
Garudapurana
Total species estimate of 84 lakh falls within the limits of scientific estimates of 80 to 110
lakhs; though seriously in error in details: plant (9 lakh- actual 2.6 lakh), bird (10 lakh –
actual 9000), mammal (30 lakh – actual 4000) species estimates too high, incredible human
diversity (4 lakh – actual just a single species) !
Characteristic of a complex society with intimate people-biodiversity links.
Our ancient and vibrant civilization has many achievements to its credit; yet it has
missed some significant transitions: Major transitions in history: (a) Domestication, India an
important secondary center of domesticated plants and animals. (b) Writing – but we
transmitted Vedas orally to maintain intellectual property rights (IPRs) of upper castes. (c)
Scientific method of rejection of all authority and reliance on empirical evidence and the
resultant technological tools- we made important beginnings with Buddhist tradition, but,
reverted to an authoritarian culture. Thus, Ayurveda became cut off from empirical contact
with medicinal herbs. Marathas, amongst the last to hold out against the British, still did not
understand the significance of maps and magnetic compass, and fought the wars with
completely outdated equipment. (d) Electronic communication and information technology –
we seem to be beginning to do well in these emerging sectors. But to make real headway, we
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cannot only be offering services to the Western nations. We must take this revolution down to
people.
Important opportunity to do this has been created by enactment of Biological Diversity Act.
An act appropriate to:
The emerging age of information and bio-technology
An age of rapid erosion of biodiversity
The act is by no means perfect. There are certain lacunae in the act.
Many countries in the world are enacting such legislation.
India can take a lead by organizing effective action on the basis of its new act
The BDAct deals simultaneously with life, knowledge and artifacts- the three kinds of
replicating entities that have shaped the history of the world:
Biodiversity, associated knowledge, and products
Patterns in History
Over time the diversity as well as the niche space occupied by the replicable entities, life
forms, knowledge, arts and other manifestations of culture, and man-made artifacts, goes on
increasing
Today we are at the cross-roads
Competition with artifacts has now begun to lower the diversity of living organisms
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Humans, undoubtedly responsible for the on-going erosion of biodiversity, are, nevertheless
the only known prudent species
Only animal species known:
To exercise deliberate restraint while harvesting resources
To make special efforts to conserve resources
At all stages of technological development, human societies exhibit conservation practices.
The scale of conservation measures changes with that of the resource catchments, or of
ecological footprints of the societies.
Other relevant transitions also take place with technological developments. The mechanisms
of implementation of conservation practices evolve, from compliance through fear of wrath
of deities, or social or state sanctions, to positive incentives. These, for instance include
payments for maintaining private lands regarded as part of “Sites of special scientific
importance” under specified land use. Knowledge systems have also evolved from reliance
on authority to the modern scientific system of becoming an organized enterprise of
skepticism that aims to be anchored on the bedrock of empirical evidence. This system has
succeeded in tremendously accelerating the rate at which knowledge has accrued. The earlier
knowledge systems grounded in faith in authority carried intellectual property rights
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primarily as trade secrets. However, the modern scientific system requires for its efficient
functioning open access to all knowledge. It has therefore developed a new system of
intellectual property rights, patents that provides monopolistic property rights for a limited
period for useful innovations that are disclosed publicly. The older trade secret system
continues especially in realms such as military technology, but is of relatively less
significance.
Stage of technological
development
Gatherer Agrarian Industrial
Conservation practices
Sacred sites, organisms Aristocratic hunting
preserves
National parks, wild
life sanctuaries
Mechanisms of
implementation of
conservation practices
Respect for sacred,
social conventions
Social conventions,
State regulation
State regulation,
positive incentives
Basis of knowledge
system
Faith in authority Faith in authority Empirical evidence
Intellectual property
rights
Trade secrets Trade secrets Trade secrets. Patents
Material property rights Communal Individual, State Individual, State,
Corporate
The material property rights systems have also undergone changes with societal evolution.
India is a complex society with all these systems prevailing side by side. We must
find productive ways of making the best of each system. Thus we must take advantage of
traditional conservation practices that are responsible for the persistence of large banyan and
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peepal trees, peafowl, herds of monkeys over much of the countryside, and incorporate them
in present day conservation practices. We must do justice to traditional knowledge of herbal
medicines. But we must also work on combining such knowledge, and that of Ayurveda with
modern scientific knowledge. We must look at modern scientific method of rejection of all
authority and reliance on empirical evidence and the resultant technological tools that have
proved to be tremendously effective and assimilate and take these down to people.
Convention on Biological Diversity
Two significant provisions:
!"Sovereign rights of countries over biodiversity resources for which they are countries
of origin
!"Benefit sharing beyond patented knowledge
Background Box: Convention on Biological Diversity
The Biological Diversity Act is an effort in the direction of operationalizing two important
provisions of the international Convention on Biological Diversity that came into force in
1993 and has by now been ratified by India and some 170 other countries. These two
significant provisions are (1) Sovereign rights of countries of origin over their genetic
resources, and (2) benefit sharing with local communities with respect to their knowledge of
sustainable use of biodiversity resources.
Some of the relevant clauses from this Convention include:
PREAMBLE
The Contracting Parties
Conscious of the intrinsic value of biological diversity and of the ecological, genetic, social,
economic, scientific, educational, cultural, recreational and aesthetic values of biological
diversity and its components,
Affirming that the conservation of biological diversity is a common concern of humankind,
Reaffirming that states have sovereign rights over their own biological resources,
Reaffirming also that states are responsible for conserving their biological diversity and for
using their biological resources in a sustainable manner,
Concerned that biological diversity is being significantly reduced by certain human
activities,
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Aware of the general lack of information and knowledge regarding biological diversity and
of the urgent need to develop scientific, technical and institutional capacities to provide the
basic understanding upon which to plan and implement appropriate measures,
Noting that it is vital to anticipate, prevent and attack the causes of significant reduction or
loss of biological diversity at source,
Recognizing the close and traditional dependence of many indigenous and local communities
embodying traditional lifestyles on biological resources, and the desirability of sharing
equitably benefits arising from the use of traditional knowledge, innovations and practices
relevant to the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of its components,
Recognizing also the vital role that women play in the conservation and sustainable use of
biological diversity and affirming the need for the full participation of women at all levels of
policy-making and implementation for biological diversity conservation,
Stressing the importance of, and the need to promote, international, regional and global
cooperation among states and intergovernmental organizations and the non-governmental
sector for the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of its components,
Acknowledging that the provisions of new and additional financial resources and appropriate
access to relevant technologies can be expected to make a substantial difference in the world's
ability to address the loss of biological diversity,
Acknowledging further that special provision is required to meet the needs of developing
countries, including the provision of new and additional financial resources and appropriate
access to relevant technologies,
Determined to conserve and sustainably use biological diversity for the benefit of present and
future generations,
Have agreed as follows:
ARTICLE 1: OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this convention, to be pursued in accordance with its relevant
provisions, are the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components
and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic
resources, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer
of relevant technologies, taking into account all rights over those resources and the
technologies, and by appropriate funding.
ARTICLE 8: IN-SITU CONSERVATION
Each contracting party shall, as far as possible and as appropriate:
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i) Rehabilitate and restore degraded ecosystems and promote the recovery of threatened
species, inter alia through the development and implementation of plans or other
management strategies.
j) Subject to its national legislation, respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations
and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant
for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and promote their wider
application with the approval and involvement of the holders of such knowledge, innovations
and practices and encourage the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization
of such knowledge, innovations and practices.
ARTICLE 15: ACCESS TO GENETIC RESOURCES
1. Recognizing the sovereign rights of states over their natural resources, the authority to
determine access to genetic resources rests with the national governments and is subject to
national legislation.
2. Each Contracting Party shall endeavour to create conditions to facilitate access to genetic
resources for environmentally sound uses by other Contracting Parties and not to impose
restrictions that run counter to the objectives of this convention.
3. For the purpose of the convention, the genetic resources being provided by a Contracting
Party, as referred to in this Article and Articles 16 and 19, are only those that are provided
by Contracting Parties that are countries of origin of such resources or by the parties
that have acquired the genetic resources in accordance with this convention.
4. Access, where granted, shall be on mutually agreed terms and subject to the provisions of
this Article.
5. Access to genetic resources shall be subject to prior informed consent of the Contracting
Party providing such resources, unless otherwise determined by that party.
6. Each Contracting Party shall endeavour to develop and carry out scientific research based
on genetic resources provided by other Contracting Parties with the full participation of,
and where possible in such Contracting Parties.
7. Each Contracting Party shall take legislative, administrative or policy measures as
appropriate, and in accordance with Articles 16 and 19 and where necessary, through the
financial mechanism established by Articles 20 and 21 with aim of sharing in a fair and
equitable way the results of research and development and the benefits arising from the
commercial and other utilization of genetic resources with the Contracting Party providing
such resources. Such sharing shall be upon mutually agreed terms.
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Biological Diversity Act Broad objectives
Devise strategies, plans and programmes for conservation, sustainable use and equitable
sharing of benefits of India’s biodiversity resources (including preservation of habitats,
conservation of cultivars, domesticated breeds of animals and micro-organisms)
For this purpose promote, at all levels, good documentation of biological diversity, its uses
and associated knowledge.
National Biodiversity Authority, State Biodiversity Boards and Biodiversity Management
Committees at the level of Panchayats and Municipalities.
Background Box: Indian Biological Diversity Act
Objectives:
Conservation of biodiversity resources
Promote in situ and ex situ conservation of biological resources
Undertake identification and monitoring of areas rich in biological resources
Undertake selection, management and conservation of heritage sites
Undertake selection, preservation and rehabilitation of threatened species
Knowledge associated with biodiversity
Undertake to respect, protect (possibly through a sui generis system), and register (chronicle)
at local, state or national levels knowledge of local people relating to biological diversity
Regulation of access to biodiversity, associated knowledge and benefit sharing
Examine, and decide on requests for accessing biological resources or knowledge associated
thereto for research, or for commercial utilization, or for bio-survey or for bio-utilization, in
consultation with the concerned Biodiversity Management Committees
Decide on levying of collection fees for accessing biological resources from within the
jurisdiction of Biodiversity Management Committees at the level of local bodies
Ensure equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of accessed biological resources,
their by-products, innovations and practices associated with their use and applications and
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knowledge relating thereto in accordance with mutually agreed terms and conditions between
the persons applying for such approval, local bodies concerned and the benefit claimers
Intellectual Property Rights and benefit sharing
Examine, and decide on requests for Intellectual Property Rights based on any research or
information on biological resource of Indian origin, prescribing, as appropriate, benefit
sharing fees or royalty or conditions for agreeing to intellectual property rights claims
Ensure appropriate transfer of technology, appropriate location of production, research and
development units, and appropriate association of Indian scientists, benefit claimers and local
people with research and development in bio-resources, their bio-survey and bio-utilization
Research, education and awareness
Provide incentives for research, training and public education to increase awareness with
respect to biodiversity
Monitor results of on-going research relating to biological resources and any transfer of
results of such research
Examine, and decide on requests for collaborative research projects
Designate repositories of biological resources
Planning
Ensure integration of biodiversity considerations into relevant sectoral or cross-sectoral plans,
programmes and policies
Ensure integration of biodiversity considerations into assessment of environmental impact of
projects with appropriate public participation
Regulate, manage or control the risks associated with use and release of living modified
organisms
Some of the pertinent clauses of the bill include:
2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
(a) “benefit claimers” means the conservers of biological resources, their byproducts,
creators and holders of knowledge and information relating to the use of such biological
resources, innovations and practices associated with such use and application;
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(b) “biological diversity” means the variability among living organisms from all sources
and the ecological complexes of which they are part and includes diversity within species or
between species and of eco-systems;
(c) “biological resources” means plants, animals and micro-organisms or parts thereof,
their genetic material and by-products (excluding value added products) with actual potential
use or value but does not include human genetic material;
(d) “bio-survey and Bio-utilisation” means survey or collection of species, subspecies, genes,
components and extracts of biological resource for any purpose and includes characterisation,
inventorisation and bioassay;
(f) “commercial utilization” means end uses of biological resources for commercial
utilization such as drugs, industrial enzymes, food flavours, fragrance, cosmetics, emulsifiers,
oleoresins, colours, extracts and genes used for improving crops and livestock through
genetic intervention, but does not include conventional breeding or traditional practices in use
in any agriculture, horticulture, poultry, dairy fanning, animal husbandry or bee keeping;
(g) “fair and equitable benefit sharing” means sharing of benefits as determined by the
National Biodiversity Authority under section 21;
(h) “local bodies” means Panchayats and Municipalities, by whatever name called,
within the meaning of clause (1) of article 243B and clause (1) of article 243Q of the
Constitution and in the absence of any Panchayats or Municipalities, institutions of self-
government constituted under any other provision of the Constitution or any Central Act or
State Act;
(o) “sustainable use” means the use of components of biological diversity in such manner and
at such rate that does not lead to the long-term decline of the biological diversity thereby
maintaining its potential to meet the needs and aspirations of present and future generations;
37. (1) Without prejudice to any other law for the time being in force, the State Government
may, from time to time in consultation with the local bodies, notify in the Official Gazette,
areas of biodiversity importance as biodiversity heritage sites under this Act.
(2) The State Government, in consultation with the Central Government, may frame rules for
the management and conservation of all the heritage sites.
(3) The State Government shall frame schemes for compensating or rehabilitating any person
or section of people economically affected by such notification.
38. Without prejudice to the provisions of any other law for the time being in force, the
Central Government, in consultation with the concerned State Government, may from time to
time notify any species which is on the verge of extinction or likely to become extinct in the
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near future as a threatened species and prohibit or regulate collection thereof for any purpose
and take appropriate steps to rehabilitate and preserve those species.
BIODIVERSITY MANAGEMENT COMMITTEES
41. (1) Every local body shall constitute a Biodiversity Management Committee within its
area for the purpose of promoting conservation, sustainable use and documentation of
biological diversity including preservation of habitats, conservation of land races, folk
varieties and cultivars, domesticated stocks and breeds of animals and micro organisms and
chronicling of knowledge relating to biological diversity.
Explanation.— For the purposes of this sub-section,-
“cultivar” means a variety of plant that has originated and persisted under cultivation or was
specifically bred for the purpose of cultivation;
(b) ‘folk variety” means a cultivated variety of plant that was developed, grown and
exchanged informally among farmers;
(c) “landrace” means primitive cultivar that was grown by ancient farmers and their
successors.
(2) The National Biodiversity Authority and the State Biodiversity Boards shall consult the
Biodiversity Management Committees while taking any decision relating to the use of
biological resources and knowledge associated with such resources occurring within the
territorial jurisdiction of the Biodiversity Management Committee.
(3) The Biodiversity Management Committees may levy charges by way of collection fees
from any person for accessing or collecting any biological resource for commercial purposes
from areas falling within its territorial jurisdiction.
LOCAL BIODIVERSITY FUND
42. The State Government may, after due appropriation made by State Legislature by law in
this behalf, pay to the Local Biodiversity Funds by way of grants or loans such sums of
money as the State Government may think fit for being utilised for the purposes of this Act.
43. (1) There shall be constituted a Fund to be called the Local Biodiversity Fund at every
area notified by the State Government where any institution of self-government is functioning
and there shall be credited thereto—
(a) any grants and loans made under section 42;
(b) any grants or loans made by the National Biodiversity Authority;
(c) any grants or loans made by the State Biodiversity Boards;
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(d) fees referred to in sub-section (3) of section 41 received by the Biodiversity Management
Committee;
(e) all sums received by the Local Biodiversity Fund from such other sources as may be
decided upon by the State Government.
44. (1) Subject to the provisions of sub-section (2), the management and the custody of the
Local Biodiversity Fund and the purposes for which such Fund shall be applied in the manner
as may be prescribed by the State Government.
(2) The Fund shall be used for conservation and promotion of biodiversity in the areas falling
within the jurisdiction of the concerned local body and for the benefit of the community in so
far such use is consistent with conservation of biodiversity.
45. The person holding the custody of the Local Biodiversity Fund shall prepare, in such
form and during each financial year at such time as may be prescribed, its annual report,
giving a full account of its activities during the previous financial year, and submit a copy
thereof to the concerned local body.
46. The accounts of the Local Biodiversity Fund shall be maintained and audited in such
manner as may, in consultation with the Accountant-General of the State, be prescribed and
the person holding the custody of the Local Biodiversity Fund shall furnish, to the concerned
local body, before such date as may be prescribed, its audited copy of accounts together with
auditor’s report thereon.
47. Every local body constituting a Biodiversity Management Committee under sub-section
(1) of section 41, shall cause, the annual report and audited copy of accounts together with
auditor’s report thereon referred to in sections 45 and 46, respectively and relating to such
Committee to be submitted to the District Magistrate having jurisdiction over the area of the
local body.
Background Box: Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act 2001
This act purports to provide for the establishment of an effective system for protection of
plant varieties, the rights of farmers and plant breeders and to encourage the development of
new varieties of plants.
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WHEREAS it is considered necessary to recognize and protect the rights of the farmers in
respect of their contribution made at any time in conserving, improving and making available
plant genetic resources for the development of new plant varieties;
AND WHEREAS for accelerated agricultural development in the country, it is necessary to
protect plant breeders' rights to stimulate investment for research and development, both in
the public and private sector, for the development of new plant varieties;
AND WHEREAS, such protection will facilitate the growth of the seed industry in the country
which will ensure the availability of high quality seeds and planting material to the farmers;
AND WHEREAS, to give effect to the aforesaid objectives, it is necessary to undertake measures
for the protection of the rights of farmers and plant breeders;
AND WHEREAS, India, having ratified the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights should, inter alia, make provision for giving effect to sub-paragraph (b) of
paragraph 3 of article 27 in Part II of the said Agreement relating to protection of plant
varieties.
BE it enacted by Parliament in the Fifty-second Year of the Republic of India as follows :—
Definitions —In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
"Authority" means the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights
Authority established under sub-section (1) of section 3;
"benefit sharing", in relation to a variety, means such proportion of the benefit
accruing to a breeder of such variety or such proportion of the benefit accruing to the breeder
from an agent or a licensee of such variety, as the case may be, for which a claimant shall be
entitled as determined by the Authority under section 26;
"breeder" means a person or group of persons or a farmer or group of farmers
or any institution which has bred, evolved or developed any variety;
(f) "convention country" means a country which has acceded to an international convention
for the protection of plant varieties to which India has also acceded, or a country which has a
law on protection of plant varieties on the basis of which India has entered into an agreement
for granting plant breeders' right to the citizens of both the countries;
(g) "denomination", in relation to a variety or its propagating material or essentially derived
variety or its propagating material, means the denomination of such variety or its propagating
material or essentially derived variety or its propagating material, as the case may be,
expressed by means of letters or a combination of letters and figures written in any language;
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(h) "essential characteristics" means such heritable traits of a plant variety which are
determined by the expression of one or more genes of other heritable determinants that
contribute to the principal features, performance or value of the plant variety;
(I) "essentially derived variety", in respect of a variety (the initial variety) shall be said to be
essentially derived from such initial variety when it—
(i) is predominantly derived from such initial variety, or from a variety that itself is
predominantly derived from such initial variety, while retaining the expression of the
essential characteristics that result from the genotype or combination of genotypes of such
initial variety;
(ii) is clearly distinguishable from such initial variety; and
(iii) conforms (except for the differences which result from the act of derivation) to such
initial variety in the expression of the essential characteristics that result from the genotype or
combination of genotypes of such initial variety;
(j) "extant variety" means a variety available in India which is—
(i) notified under section 5 of the Seeds Act, 1966 (54 of 1966); or (ii) farmers' variety; or
(iii) a variety about which there is common knowledge; or (iv) any other variety which is in
public domain;
(k) "farmer" means any person who—
(i) cultivates crops by cultivating the land himself; or
(ii) cultivates crops by directly supervising the cultivation of land through any other person;
or
(iii) conserves and preserves, severally or jointly, with any person any wild species or
traditional varieties, or adds value to such wild species or traditional varieties through
selection and identification of their useful properties;
(1) "farmers' variety" means a variety which—
(i) has been traditionally cultivated and evolved by the farmers in their fields; or
(ii) is a wild relative or land race of a variety about which the farmers possess the common
knowledge;
(m) "Gene Fund" means the National Gene Fund constituted under sub-section (1) of section
45;
(q) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(r) "propagating material" means any plant or its component or part thereof including an
intended seed or seed which is capable of, or suitable for, regeneration into a plant;
(s) "Register" means the National Register of Plant Varieties referred to in section 13;
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(v) "Registry" means the Plant Varieties Registry referred to in sub-section (1) of section 12;
(za) "variety" means a plant grouping except micro organism within a single botanical taxon
of the lowest known rank, which can be—
(i) defined by the expression of the characteristics resulting from a given genotype of that
plant grouping;
(ii) distinguished from any other plant grouping by expression of at least one of the said
characteristics; and
(iii) considered as a unit with regard to its suitability for being propagated which remains
unchanged after such propagation and includes propagating material of such variety, extant
variety, transgenic variety, farmers' variety and essentially derived variety;
12. Registry and offices thereof—(1) The Central Government shall establish for the
purposes of this Act, a Registry which shall be known as the Plant Varieties Registry. The
head office of the Plant Varieties Registry shall be located in the head office of the Authority,
and for the purpose of facilitating the registration of plant varieties, there may be established,
at such places, as the Authority may think fit, branch offices of the Registry.
National Register of Plant Varieties—(1) For the purposes of this Act, a
Register called the National Register of Plant Varieties shall be kept at the head office of the
Registry, wherein shall be entered the names of all the registered plant varieties with the
names and addresses of their respective breeders, the right of such breeders in respect of the
registered variety, the particulars of the denomination of each registered variety, its seed or
other propagating material along with specification of salient features thereof and such other
matters as may be prescribed.
(2) Subject to the superintendence and direction of the Central Government, the Register
shall be kept under the control and management of the Authority.
There shall be kept at each branch office of the Registry a copy of the Register and such other
documents as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, direct.
18. Form of application—(1) Every application for registration under section 14
shall—
be with respect to a variety;
state the denomination assigned to such variety by the applicant;
be accompanied by an affidavit sworn by the applicant that such variety does
not contain any gene or gene sequence involving terminator technology;
be in such form as may be specified by regulations;
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contain a complete passport data of the parental lines from which the variety
has been derived along with the geographical location in India from where the
genetic material has been taken and all such information relating to the
contribution, if any, of any farmer, village community, institution or
organization in breeding, evolving or developing the variety;
(f) be accompanied by a statement containing a brief description of the variety bringing out
its characteristics of novelty, distinctiveness, uniformity and stability as required for
registration;
(g) be accompanied by such fees as may be prescribed;
(h) contain a declaration that the genetic material or parental material acquired for breeding,
evolving or developing the variety has been lawfully acquired; and
(i) be accompanied by such other particulars as may be prescribed:
Provided that in case where the application is for the registration of farmers' variety, nothing
contained in clauses (b) to (i) shall apply in respect of the application and the application
shall be in such form as may be prescribed;
Every application referred to in sub-section (1) shall be filed in the office of the
Registrar.
Where such application is made by virtue of a succession or an assignment of the
right to apply for registration, there shall be furnished at the time of making the
application, or within such period after making the application as may be prescribed, a
proof of the right to make the application.
FARMERS' RIGHTS
39. Farmers' right—(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act,—
(i) a farmer who has bred or developed a new variety shall be entitled for registration and
other protection in like manner as a breeder of a variety under this Act;
(ii) the farmers' variety shall be entitled for registration if the application contains
declarations as specified in clause (h) of sub-section (1) of section 18;
(iii) a farmer who is engaged in the conservation of genetic resources of land races and wild
relatives of economic plants and their improvement through selection and preservation shall
be entitled in the prescribed manner for recognition and reward from the Gene Fund:
Provided that material so selected and preserved has been used as donors of genes in varieties
registrable under this Act;
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(iv) a farmer shall be deemed to be entitled to save, use, sow, resow, exchange, share or sell
his farm produce including seed of a variety protected under this Act in the same manner as
he was entitled before the coming into force of this Act:
Provided that the farmer shall not be entitled to sell branded seed of a variety protected under
this Act.
Explanation—For the purposes of clause (iv), "branded seed" means any seed put in a
package or any other container and labeled in a manner indicating that such seed is of a
variety protected under this Act.
(2) Where any propagating material of a variety registered under this Act has been sold to a
farmer or a group of farmers or any organization of farmers, the breeder of such variety shall
disclose to the farmer or the group of farmers or the organization of farmers, as the case may
be, the expected performance under given conditions, and if such propagating material fails
to provide such performance under such given conditions, the farmer or the group of farmers
or the organization of farmers, as the case may be, may claim compensation in the prescribed
manner before the Authority and the Authority shall after giving notice to the breeder of the
variety and after providing him an opportunity to file opposition in the prescribed manner and
after hearing the parties, it may direct the breeder of the variety to pay such compensation as
it deems fit, to the farmer or the group of farmers or the organization of farmers, as the case
may be.
Rights of communities—(1) Any person, group of persons (whether actively
engaged in farming or not) or any governmental or non-governmental organization may,
on behalf of any village or local community in India, file in any centre notified, with the
previous approval of the Central Government by the Authority in the Official Gazette,
any claim attributable to the contribution of the people of that village or local
community, as the case may be, in the evolution of any variety for the purpose of staking
a claim on behalf of such village or local community.
Where any claim is made under sub-section (1), the centre notified under that sub
section may verify the claim made by such person or group of persons or such
governmental or non-governmental organization in such manner as it deems fit and if it is
satisfied that such village or local community has contributed significantly to the
evolution of the variety which has been registered under this Act, it shall report its
findings to the Authority.
When the Authority, on a report under sub-section (2) is satisfied, after such
enquiry as it may deem fit, that the variety with which the report is related has been
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registered under the provisions of this Act, it may issue notice in the prescribed manner
to the breeder of that variety and after providing opportunity to such breeder to file
objection in the prescribed manner and of being heard, it may subject to any limit
notified by the Central Government, by order, grant such sum of compensation to be paid
to a person or group of persons or governmental or non-governmental organization
which has made claim under sub-section (1) to the Authority, as it may deem fit.
Any compensation granted under sub-section (3) shall be deposited by the breeder
of the variety in the Gene Fund.
The compensation granted under sub-section (3) shall be deemed to be an arrear of
land revenue and shall be recoverable by the Authority accordingly.
43. Authorization of farmers' variety—Notwithstanding anything contained in sub
section (6) of section 23 and section 28, where an essentially derived variety is derived from
a farmers' variety, the authorization under sub-section -(2) of section 28 shall not be given by
the breeder of such farmers variety except with the consent of the farmers or group of farmers
or community of farmers who have made contribution in the preservation or development of
such variety.
44. Exemption from fee—A farmer or group of farmers or village community shall not be
liable to pay any fee in any proceeding before the Authority or Registrar or the
Tribunal or the High Court under this Act or the rules made thereunder.
Explanation—For the purposes of this section, "fee for any proceeding" includes any fee
payable for inspection of any document or for obtaining a copy of any decision or order or
document under this Act or the rules made thereunder.
45. Gene Fund—(1) The Central Government shall constitute a Fund to be called the
National Gene Fund and there shall be credited thereto—
the benefit sharing received in the prescribed manner from the breeder of a
variety or an essentially derived variety registered under this Act, or
propagating material of such variety or essentially derived variety, as the case
may be; the annual fee payable to the Authority by way of royalty under sub-section
(1) of section 35; the compensation deposited in the Gene Fund under sub-section (4) of
section 41; the contribution from any national and international organisation and other
sources;
(2) The Gene Fund shall, in the prescribed manner, be applied for meeting—
any amount to be paid by way of benefit sharing under sub-section (5) of
section 26;
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the compensation payable under sub-section (3) of section 41;
the expenditure for supporting the conservation and sustainable use of genetic
resources including in-situ and ex-situ collections and for strengthening the
capability of the Panchayat in carrying out such conservation and sustainable
use; the expenditure of the schemes relating to benefit sharing framed under section
46.
Information needs
Biological Diversity Act needs a variety of good information for its proper implementation.
For example: In order to
Undertake selection, management and conservation of heritage sites
Undertake selection, preservation and rehabilitation of threatened species
Information is needed on
Biodiversity wealth of specific sites in context of broader scenario
Socio-economic forces, tenurial arrangements for specific sites
Thus require both local and global information
In order to undertake to respect, protect and register knowledge of local people relating to
biological diversity, it is necessary to
Document knowledge, largely oral, arrived at through a trial and error process, often
mingled with empirically unsustainable beliefs, and
Relate this knowledge to the knowledge developed within the stream of modern science
In order to decide on levying of collection fees for accessing biological resources from within
the jurisdiction of local Biodiversity Management Committees, it is necessary to have
information on
Market demands, prices at global level, conservation status at both global and local levels,
socio-economic forces, tenurial arrangements at local level
Thus require both local and global information
In order to decide on requests for Intellectual Property Rights based on any research or
information on biological resource of Indian origin, prescribing, as appropriate, benefit
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sharing fees or royalty or conditions for agreeing to intellectual property rights claims, it is
necessary to have information on:
Globally held patents
Inventory of biological resource of Indian origin
Ongoing scientific work relating these resources
Economics of R&D and production pertinent to fixing royalties
Clearly, implementation of Biological Diversity Act calls for development of a well-designed
Biodiversity Information System (BIS) for India
Knowledge base for the three tiered management structure:
National Biodiversity Authority
State level Biodiversity Boards
Local level Biodiversity Management Committees.
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Experiences Box: Peru model
Provisions of Peru Biodiversity Act are of interest in the context of designing an Indian
Biodiversity Information System. Peru visualizes Biodiversity Registers of four types: public,
confidential, local registers; plus a synoptic register
Schematically, we may represent this regime of access as follows:
Public Access Restricted access
Global database
Public access
Access to authorized user
Local database
Synoptic database(s)
Indicator Access to local user
We may consider making similar provisions.
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People’s Biodiversity Registers
BIS may be visualized as a meta-database with a six-tiered framework: global, national, state,
district, taluk and local.
People’s knowledge and perceptions, the basis of much of the information that will go into
“People’s Biodiversity Registers”, has many facets expected to differ greatly over the length
and breadth of India country with its diverse culture and plural society. People’s ways of
expression and methods of preservation of traditional knowledge also vary a great deal. A
whole range of methods of expressions and preservation including folk songs, folklores, wall
paintings, carvings, collection of materials and artifacts are apt to be involved.
Apart from documenting this knowledge in PBR process, it is important to take a
serious note of the various forms through which the knowledge is being expressed and
preserved. It is also essential that data collection should not become a stereotyped ‘form
filling’ activity lest the interest of the people in the process and the location specific flavors
of the expression is lost. We therefore do not propose to ‘impose’ any uniformity on the data
gathering activity, which should be shaped by the ingenuity and imagination of the agents
collecting the data. These agents should certainly be believers of this philosophy, and ideally
be members of the local community.
However, establishing links to the larger information pool will empower local communities,
which calls for bringing in certain discipline, certain standardization.
Merits of standardization. Loss of Ayurvedic information due to confusion in identity of
species. Understand value of what is being collected. Engage in proper Environmental Impact
assessments.
Information to go into formats may be generated in a variety of ways; clarify with example of
DDS matrix
People’s Biodiversity Registers
!"Local level documentation of biodiversity and related issues
!"Significant contributors to information content of BIS
!"However, PBR’s are not visualized as merely subservient to broader BIS.
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!"Contents of PBRs in terms of public, confidential, local; plus synoptic registers
!"In part linked to the BIS, ensuring information flows in all directions
!"Continually up-dated
!"Databases, of all sorts of data, including videorecordings of dance, not just one-time
printed documents
!"Organized so as to generate a variety of products desired by the people
!"Computerized components of PBRs may be based in computers at all Panchayats and
Municipalities
!"Components desired to be shared with wider society, (which need not include all
information collected, since some may be maintained under restricted local access)
will contribute to the nation-wide distributed PBR Database
!"Servers located at district level
!"In Indian languages and English
PBRs and BIS pose a number of formidable challenges:
!"Inventorying biodiversity with lakhs of entities: species, genes, ecosystems, exhibiting
tremendous variation in space and time
!"Paucity of information on biodiversity
!"Much relevant information on present status, on-going processes, historical trends,
uses, conservation traditions, with non-scientists, embodied in oral traditions
!"Knowledge, largely derived through a trial and error process, commingled with
beliefs, posing great difficulties for validation
!"Designing an intellectual property rights system to deal with informal knowledge
systems
Meeting these challenges demands
!"Cross-cultural dialogue
!"Cross-disciplinary activities
!"Use of all Indian languages; at least ten different scripts
A great opportunity, given our
!"Strengthening democracy
!"Growing confidence in technological competence
To contribute to nation building
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!"Create decentralized platforms to take care of environment
!"Empower people with access to new information, knowledge and skills
!"Engage folk ecologists in a scientific enterprise
!"Organize a scientific enterprise right down to the grass-roots
To reiterate, there are formidable challenges in dealing with information relating to
biodiversity
!"Many different kinds of information
!"Involving different systems of knowledge
!"On different spatial scales
!"Employing the many different Indian languages, along with English
!"Need to interrelate, integrate all this information; not permit it to remain fragmented
!"Need to validate, bring as much as possible of this information within the ambit of
modern science, while allowing to let stand that which cannot be strait-jacketed in this
fashion
!"Need for exchange of information, horizontal as well as vertical
!"Need to regulate access to information
!"Need to establish appropriate intellectual property rights
!"Need to ensure that information cannot be tampered with
Biodiversity information system
An appropriate solution
A distributed networked system of interlinked modules;
!"Databases
!"Software tools
!"Search engines
Information System Benefits
!"Access and analyse electronically a vast amount of data
!"Query/Search hundreds of databases
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!"Scale the system to accommodate growing data volume and complexities
!"Customize the system to specific needs, allowing different users to have tailored
views of the same data with various levels of access permissions
!"Allow for data managers to check for errors, internal consistency and consistency
with information collected within the framework of modern scientific knowledge
Data Inputs
!"Existing Data with various individuals / institutions like ZSI, BSI …
!"New Data through PBR exercise
PBR’s Primary role would be to generate good local level documentation, and to serve as an
instrument enabling local communities access data from outside, to resolve possible disputes,
to protect their own interests
Data from across the country ~75,000 Panchayats / Municipalities
Given this focus, overall BIS may include Data Entities pertaining to:
!"Geographical
!"Ecological processes
!"Biological units /taxa
!"Biological populations
!"Biological materials
!"People
!"Knowledge
!"Organizations
!"Disputes
Entities at PBR level
Data may pertain to:
A. Setting
Physical, ecological, social, economic setting
Languages
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B. Peoplescape
Record how people, and human institutions, both from within the study locality, and from
outside, relate to the biodiversity resources of the locality and with the associated knowledge
Identify main user groups; local and external
Create a roster of knowledgeable individuals
1. Activities / Occupations
2. People grouped into local and external User groups on the basis of performance of similar
activities
3. Knowledgeable Individuals , Institutions etc.
C. Ecological/ economic processes
People’s perceptions of the most significant ecological processes that need to be addressed
while managing local ecological resources
4. Ecological processes
D. Earthscape
Documenting the setting of ecological habitats
5. Landscape / Waterscape elements
E. Lifescape
Recording biodiversity resources and associated knowledge to promote conservation, prudent
use and benefit sharing
6. Species, varieties, species groups
F. Knowledge associated with biodiversity
7. People’s Knowledge
G. Ecosystem Management
Recording systems of management of biodiversity elements and their habitats, on-going
changes, forces driving changes, gainers and losers from changes, possible conflicts, disputes
Identifying significant management issues
Recording people’s perceptions of desired changes, and desired management systems
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People’s perceptions of management responses that are considered practicable under the
present circumstances
Working out a management plan
Monitoring experiences from implementation of management plans
Learning from lessons of past experiences
8. Management Issues
Information on a standard set of entities with appropriately specified links may be collected
using suggested formats. Such information may be organized into a relational database.
Collecting information in the recommended formats will help establish horizontal as well as
vertical links, will help in organizing a network for information sharing. But information
outside the formats, and using other media including stories, pictures, song and dance may
also be collected.
Consider some examples of how the relationships amongst different entities (linkages) may
be specified:
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!"Access to computers is not a prerequisite for participating in a PBR exercise. Data
capture can be in very simple hard copy of sheets. Nor is access to computers a
prerequisite for viewing a variety of products based on the data, local as also global.
Such data products could be printed reports, responding to a variety of queries, in
Indian languages; even audio- or video-tapes readily accessible to local people.
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Need of Data Exchange
Two types of Data
1.Global data: List of locations, scientific data , maps , POI data
2. Location Specific data:
Data on earthscape, activities, species occurrence , people’s knowledge
Local data need to be exchanged with outside
1. For cross-checking and where appropriate validation
2. To compile an overall picture
3. For NBA to decide on benefit sharing claims
4.For research purposes etc.
Local people need access to global data as well as data from other localities
1. To implement sustainable resource use practices
2. To organize local level value addition
3. To decide on marketing strategies
4. To stake claims related to benefit sharing etc.
Efficient data exchange necessarily requires use of standardized entities, links. So local
people have much to gain from such standardization provided there is provision for two-way
vertical as well as horizontal exchange of data.
Local people should have the final say on who will access the data made available by them
and on what terms.
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Local language / script Issue
Data should be collected and entered into computer at the local level itself in local language
and script.
This poses a question as to how the data can be read / understood at other locations?
Possible solutions
1.All global data are internally given global IDs for exchange with outside, although locally
you see the data in local script & language. So outsiders will view the data in their own script
& language.
2.All location specific data like local names, proper nouns etc. entered in local script can be
transliterated into other scripts.
Data in other forms: Information outside of the standard formats may be collected using a
variety of media including images, songs and dances; these too could be made part of the
computerized database if desired, giving appropriate links to information collected in the
recommended formats
Collecting information in recommended formats and computerizing it will facilitate sharing
and participation in a larger enterprise, but the computerization can be undertaken elsewhere,
and the people can view the information collected locally, as well as from elsewhere through
a variety of reports generated not only through print, but audio and audio-visual media
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PBR process
Biodiversity Management Committees
From our perspective, Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC) would have a very
significant role in the follow up of the Biological Diversity Act.
Every local body shall constitute a BMC within its area for the purpose of promoting
conservation, sustainable use and documentation of biological diversity including
preservation of habitats, conservation of land races, folk varieties and cultivars, domesticated
stocks and breeds of animals and micro-organisms and chronicling of knowledge relating to
biological diversity
BMCs to be consulted
The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) and the State Biodiversity Boards (SBB) shall
consult the BMCs while taking any decision relating to the use of biological resources and
knowledge associated with such resources occurring within the territorial jurisdiction of the
Biodiversity Management Committee
Collection fees
The BMCs may levy charges by way of collection fees from any person for accessing or
collecting any biological resource for commercial purposes from areas falling within its
territorial jurisdiction
Local Biodiversity Fund
There shall be constituted a Local Biodiversity Fund at every area notified by the State
Government where any institution of self-government is functioning and there shall be
credited thereto—any grants and loans made (a) under section 42; (b) by the NBA;(c) by the
SBBs;(d) fees received by the BMC;(e) all sums received by the Local Biodiversity Fund
from such other sources as may be decided upon by the State Government.
People’s Biodiversity Registers will serve as the knowledge base for BMCs
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Functions of PBRs
!"Help local community arrive at management decisions on their own, e.g., on
regulating grazing on community grazing lands, or, initiate the collection of certain
minor forest produce only after an agreed upon date, or, in cities, deciding on
maintenance of lake or riverside vegetation
!"Help local bodies propose development schemes, e.g., to take up plantations in the
catchment of an irrigation pond using multiple species of local choice
!"Help people access information of significance in management of their crops and
livestock, e.g. on outbreaks of pests and diseases in neighbouring localities,
!"Help people access information on availability of seeds of various traditional crop
cultivars in different regions, and special properties of these cultivars,
!"Help people widely share their special knowledge of uses and management of
biodiversity resources, for instance, use of catch crops in pest management
!"Help local people access information on technologies of relevance to better
management of biodiversity resources, e.g. technologies of harvesting honey from
wild honeybee hives without undue destruction of the bee colony, or in cities,
technologies of developing terrace gardens
!"Help local people access information on prices and on marketing opportunities for
their biodiversity resources
!"Help ascertain people’s perceptions relating to specific management issues, e.g., on
how to regulate destructive fishing practices such as dynamiting. This could help draft
suitable regulatory measures at the state level on the basis of the Explosives Control
Act
!"Help continuation of traditional practices of conservation and sustainable use of
biodiversity by facilitating their recognition and incorporation in the Biodiversity
Management Plans of local BMCs
!"Help empower women and other weaker sections of communities intimately linked to
biodiversity by involving them in the process of documentation and development of
the Biodiversity Management Plans of local BMCs
!"Help preserve the biodiversity related knowledge of people for the posterity through
its codification and recording
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43
!"Help people publicise the nature of their special knowledge without disclosing full
details, thereby opening avenues for arriving at contractual agreement with
commercial enterprises interested in access to such knowledge
!"Help local communicates claim rewards in national conservation programmes, e.g. of
on-farm maintenance of crop genetic diversity
!"Feed in good information from the local level to contribute to the broader information
base, e.g., facilitate collating information on status of a species of medicinal plant
from a number of villages from different eco-regions to assess its status over a larger
region
!"Information on prevalent prices and quantities of a specific species being brought to
markets in different towns would help estimate the level of commercial demand for
that species
!"Help resolve disputes which may pertain to: [1] rights of local communities over
natural resources vis-à-vis nighbouring communities, nomadic communities,
government agencies, or [2] rights of nomadic communities over natural resources
vis-à-vis resident local communities, government agencies, [3] claims over rewards,
[4] benefit sharing claims
A multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral endeavour involving:
!"Community members
!"School and college teachers and students
!"Members of Community-based Organizations
!"Workers with Non-governmental Organizations
!"Technical experts in the area of life sciences and resource management
!"Technical experts in the area of information management
!"Government functionaries
Focused on people’s knowledge and interests
!"Ecological/ economic processes
!"Biological entities
!"Habitats
!"Goods & services, bads & disservices
!"Management issues
!"That people know and care about!
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Background experiences
In this endeavor of involving people in inventorying and monitoring of biodiversity and
knowledge of its uses we can build upon a variety of experiences of forging an alliance
between the scientific establishment, the government machinery and the knowledgeable
people, or barefoot ecologists, in the field. These experiences include exercises of Panchayat
Level Resource Mapping initiated by the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishat in 1989, the
Community Biodiversity Registers experiment initiated by the Foundation for the
Revitalization of Local Health Traditions in 1993 and the People’s Biodiversity Registers
(PBR) experiment initiated by the Indian Institute of Science in 1995. Other pertinent
experiences include decade old attempts at documenting grass-roots innovations by SRISHTI
and the more recent National Innovation Foundation.
KSSP Panhayat Level Resource Mapping
Box: benefits from flood protection in Nayanar’s panchayat
PDR experiences
Ernakulam PBRs
Navadhaanya, DDS
Box: Compatibility of DDS methodology with use of databases
.
PBR first phase experiences in different places
Box: Nanj benefits,
Teligram Mukta Rai’s interests
.
NST Belthangadi experiences
Box: Follow up
SBR experiences. KBSAP phase, data computerization phase, agrobiodiversity phase
Regional workshops, resource material preparation
.
Kunjeera Molya story.
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Earlier recording of knowledge for Rs 200
Latest recording
Reward and recognition
Suggested institutional framework for the post BDAct process
Institutional Country State District Local body
framework
National State ZP Panchayat/
Supervisory Biodiversity Biodiversity Biodiversity Municipality
agency Authority Board Management Biodiversity
Committee Management
Committee
Implementing agency Ministry of Nodal Scientific/ Sci/ educational
Env& agency educational institutions &
Forests, GoI designated institution Community
By SBB designated based
by ZP-BMC organizations
selected by BMC
Technical National State level District level Local scientific/
support technical technical technical educational
agencies support support support institutions
group group group
Other Country State level District level Community
supportive level NGO NGO NGO based
agencies consortium consortium consortium organizations and
NGOs
BMCs are expected to function at the levels of local bodies. This is appropriate as these are
basic units of our system of decentralized governance. However, there are certain limitations
of local bodies such as Gram Panchayats and Municipalities:
!"These are representative bodies
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!"All people cannot participate in decision making directly
!"Representation at individual, not community level
Possible solution
!"Every local body shall constitute several Biodiversity Management Committees
(BMC) one, for each “ Biodiversity Management Village/ Ward Community
(BMVC)” below Panchayat or Municipality level within its area of jurisdiction.
!"Biodiversity Management Village / Ward Community (BMVC) may be defined as a
compact community having population of 300 to 500 persons living in rural, tribal,
urban or any other area.
“Village Community” term has been used in sec.28 (Village Forest) of the Indian Forest Act
1927:
Sec28: Formation of village forests –(1) The (State Govt.) may assign to any Village
Community the rights of Govt. to or over any land which has been constituted a reserved
forest and may cancel such assignment. All forest so assigned shall be called village forest.
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Organizing the process
Should ideally be bottom up with local educational institutions and some appropriate CBO
such as a women’s self-help group jointly assuming responsibility for documentation, but
these may need capacity building and networking
Study group of Mendha-Lekha reporting to gram sabha for decisions as an example of the
ideal set up to undertake PBR exercieses
However, on a broader scale the process may have to be promoted by the NBA and State
Biodiversity Boards
Regional Workshops. Resource material. This process is under way.The last workshop will
conclude by mid-November 2003.
Organizing the process following Regional Workshops -
!"State level workshops convened by State Biodiversity Board (SBB),
!"Identification of a state level nodal agency - Constitution of state level technical
support group and NGO consortium
!"Initial selection of pilot PBR sites at the invitation of Local Bodies
!"Establishment of BMCs in these Local Bodies
!"Preparation of resource material in local languages, state level training programmes
!"Initiation of PBR exercises by scientific/ educational institutions and community
based organizations designated by BMCs
Alternatively, the process may be organized at the level of eco-regions including several
states.
Identifying Study Sites
Rationale: In the long run, the Biodiversity Management Committees all over the
country will be involved in contributing to the Biodiversity Information System through
detailed locality- and society- specific information generated through a PBR-like process.
However, this can be accomplished only in stages. The documentation activities might be
initiated at the level of a state, or of particular districts, and we may begin by selecting sites,
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gram panchayats, towns and cities, representing the different ecological regimes within the
focal region.
Activity: Identification of study sites.
Lead agency: State Biodiversity Boards working with some nodal agency as was attempted
in the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan process. This nodal agency could be
the Forest Department as in Seoni district of Madhya Pradesh, or a scientific institution like
the Kerala Forest Research Institute or an NGO such as Seva Mandir in Rajasthan that
coordinated the PBR preparation exercises in the pilot phase during 1996-98. It could also be
an international NGO like IUCN, Nepal.
Other agencies: The nodal agency will have to collaborate with other governmental
agencies, scientific, technical and social science experts, as well as NGOs.
Inputs: Information relating to biogeogrphic, ecoregional, soil type, watershed, demographic,
administrative divisions of the focal region; on-going studies; competent scientific agencies
or NGOs functioning in the focal region who might extend support to the PBR process.
Methodology: Partition the focal region into strata on the basis of one or more pertinent
criteria such as environmental regimes in terms of topography, soils, climate, vegetation, land
use pattern, cropping pattern, human population densities; administrative divisions such as
states and districts, availability of competent scientific and educational institutions, or
voluntary agencies who could take a lead in organizing a PBR exercise. Perhaps, the agro-
ecological zones of the country as defined by ICAR may provide the most appropriate
framework for this purpose. The number of strata will depend on the total number of sites for
which a PBR will be prepared. Ideally one should choose sites randomly within each stratum
allowing for adequate levels of replication. However, due consideration will have to be given
to logistic issues such as ease of access, local contacts, and availability of competent agencies
or individuals to take up work at the field level in making the final choice.
Outputs: Ranking of suitability of potential study sites, leading to final choice of study sites.
This activity is a prerequisite for all subsequent activities.
Documentation: Information relating to biogeogrphic, ecoregional, agro-ecological, soil
type, watershed, demographic, administrative divisions of the focal region; on-going studies;
competent scientific agencies or NGOs.
Phasing: This activity needs to be taken up as one of the initial steps in the first phase in all
local level activities.
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Experiences Box: Identifying Study Sites: BCPP
The most systematic attempt at preparation of PBRs was undertaken by a network co-
ordinated through the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
(CES) as a part of the Biodiversity Conservation Prioritisation Programme (BCPP) sponsored
by World Wide Fund for Nature (India) over 1996-98. (Gadgil et al. 1998). This programme
was initiated through a workshop held at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in March
1996 involving potential collaborators from the states of Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar,
Assam, Orissa, Karnataka, Maharashtra and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar
Islands. These 8 states/UTs had been selected so as to provide a good sample of the varied
ecological and social regimes of the subcontinent. Discussions at this workshop permitted a
crystallization of the methodology and drafting of a methodology manual. There followed a
series of training programmes and workshops that facilitated the field work spread over 52
sites throughout the subcontinent employing a common methodology. The first task of the
state level co-ordinators was to select the individual study sites. These were so selected as to
represent the entire spectrum of ecological and social regimes within the state. The 52 study
localities covered all the bioclimatic zones of the country (Gadgil and Meher-Homji 1990):
tropical wet (18), tropical moist (16), tropical dry (6), tropical semi-arid (4), subtropical (4),
temperate (3) and alpine (1). They also covered a whole range of ecosystem types: forest
(30), pastures (8), wetlands (14), degraded forests (3), agriculture (33), horticulture (8) and
desertic (3). Sixteen of the studies pertained to protected areas, comprising 6 national parks
and 10 wildlife sanctuaries, 3 of these were Tiger Reserves and 2 were Bird Sanctuaries.
Experiences Box: Identifying Study Sites: CES
In 2001, CES decided to extend the BCPP exercise to a series of more in-depth studies with
the help of a grant from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, to
gain experience of chronicling biodiversity to assist in the work of Local Level Biodiversity
Management Committees. The two coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi of
Karnataka State were selected as the focus of the study, since Mala, one of the BCPP sites,
lies in Udupi district and CES had extensive contacts with NGOs and academic institutions in
these two districts. The focal region comprises three ecological zones: (a) the sea coast-
estuarine belt, characterized by high human population densities, extensive dependence on
coastal and estuarine fishing activities and cultivation of paddy and coconut, (b) Undulating
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plains lying between the sea-coast and the hills of Western Ghats, with moderate population
densities, cultivation of paddy, coconut and arecanut and (c) Western slopes of the hills of
Western Ghats with lower population densities, greater dependence on collection of forest
produce and cultivation of arecanut, coconut, paddy and rubber.
Teachers from an undergraduate science college in Karkala and workers of an NGO
called Nagarika Seva Trust, Belthangadi willingly came forward to collaborate in the
programme. Based on their contacts and further contacts with school teachers and members
of Panchayats, five study sites were selected.
Experiences Box: Identifying Study Sites: KBSAP
The programme for preparation of the Karanataka State Biodiversity Strategy and Action
Plan (KBSAP), a component of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan Project
conducted over 2000-2002, visualized a broad, participatory approach. One of the inputs for
this process was the preparation of ‘School Biodiversity Registers’. An attempt was made to
involve schools from all the four broad ecological zones of Karnataka – coast; hilly regions,
and northern black cotton soil and southern red soil regions of the Deccan plateau. This was
based on an invitation to a state-wide network of school teachers belonging to Bharatiya
Gyan Vigyan Samithi movement, a district wide network belonging to Tumkur Vigyan
Kendra and other teachers who had earlier interacted with CES. A total of 50 schools agreed
to take part in the activities; 42 of them completed the project. These did represent all the four
zones of the state as desired, although there was inadequate representation from the northern
Deccan plateau zone.
Rapport building
Ideally, the local community should take lead in the whole process
However, technical or other supportive agencies may have to initiate the process
Begin by informing the community, Panchayat / Municipality members, school/college
teachers / students, CBOs of the background and proposed activities
Initiate preliminary activities with the help of a team involving all segments of the
community
Seoni jal- jungle- jamin dastavej yatra as an example of a rapport buiding exercise
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Yatra and study group as alternative modes of conducting a PBR exercise
Experiences Box: Establishing Rapport: CES
The coastal village of Uchila in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka was one of the study
sites where CES and its partners had no previous contacts. The first step in bringing the
project to the attention of local citizens was the preparation of a handbill explaining the
objectives and rationale that was distributed to leaders and teachers of the locality. A press
conference was arranged in district headquarters where the journalists were briefed about the
activities. This led to wide circulation of reports about the project through local newspapers.
Workers of the partner NGO, Nagarika Seva Trust, also contacted and talked to some of the
local citizens. This was followed by an open public meeting chaired by the Chairwoman of
the Panchayat and with all the local leaders on the dais at which the project was debated, and
all questions answered. Then followed a house to house survey where project assistants
identified by Nagarika Seva Trust collected basic information on the households and their
dependence on ecosystem goods and services, identified knowledgeable individuals and
answered any queries about the project. The local school teachers and students were invited
to undertake a project on local biodiversity with some financial support and resource material
and training from CES. This further built up the rapport with members of the local
community.
Experiences Box: Establishing Rapport: Mendha (Lekha)
Mendha (Lekha), in Dhanora taluk, Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra was selected as an
additional PBR site by CES to represent conditions in the highly forested tribal tracts of
central India. This community functions as a “village republic” debating and taking all
decisions relating to public affairs in the village assembly. It has close contacts with an NGO
called Vrikshamitra and has welcomed a number of studies. Through Vrikshamitra, the local
community extended an invitation to CES to take up the PBR exercise. Building rapport was
thus particularly easy. The PBR process began with a village assembly in which the concept
was explained and debated. The villagers appreciated the objectives and felt that they would
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particularly benefit from quantitative estimations of some of the economically important
biodiversity resources. They offered that many of them would actively participate in the
process.
Prior Informed Consent
Registering “knowledge associated with biodiversity” an important objective
Must respect people’s intellectual property rights (IPRs)
Inform people fully of IPR provisions and only record such information as they wish to
provide agreeing to any restrictions on its sharing that they stipulate
Formally execute a “ Prior Informed Consent” agreement with individuals and community
groups
Many unresolved issues, in particular involvement at individual, group, community level
An example based on FRLHT form
Prior Informed Consent form
Informant’s Details
Name: Sex: Age: Address: Community:
Consent Form (Local Language)
I disclose the pertinent information as shown in sheet 2 , and stipulate that this information
may be shared as per conditions specified in sheet 3 to NGO/CBO/Government
representative/Researcher Mr/Ms--------------------------------------(Address)-----------------------
---after explaining me the purpose as follows--------------
Sign / Thumb Impression of the informant, Date, Place:
Signature, Name of the person documenting, organisation name, address, date; place
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Recording information
People’s knowledge and perceptions, the basis of much of the information that will go into
“People’s Biodiversity Registers”, has many facets expected to differ greatly over the length
and breadth of India country with its diverse culture and plural society. People’s ways of
expression and methods of preservation of traditional knowledge also vary a great deal. A
whole range of methods of expressions and preservation including folk songs, folklores, wall
paintings, carvings, collection of materials and artifacts are apt to be involved.
Apart from documenting this knowledge in PBR process, it is important to take a
serious note of the various forms through which the knowledge is being expressed and
preserved. It is also essential that data collection should not become a stereotyped ‘form
filling’ activity lest the interest of the people in the process and the location specific flavors
of the expression is lost. We therefore do not propose to ‘impose’ any uniformity on the data
gathering activity, which should be shaped by the ingenuity and imagination of the agents
collecting the data. These agents should certainly be believers of this philosophy, and ideally
be members of the local community.
However, it is also essential that at least some components of the information contained in the
PBR are:
1. Corroborated ,
2. Expressible in scientific terminology ,
3. Capable of being exchanged with other locations using modern technologies like the web,
and
4. Capable of being analyzed statistically.
This would permit exchange of local data with others for:
1. Cross-checking and where appropriate validation
2. To compile an overall picture
3. For NBA to decide on benefit sharing claims
4.For research purposes etc.
This would also facilitate local people accessing global data as well as data from other
localities:
1. To implement sustainable resource use practices
2. To organize local level value addition
3. To decide on marketing strategies
4. To stake claims related to benefit sharing etc.
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We therefore propose the following data gathering and storage methodologies:
I . Local data capture and People’s Primary Local Database:
Data/information /knowledge of the people will be collected by the agent in a totally
freelance manner and in a way which will not suppress / ignore their preferred methods of
expression and preservation. This data will be in the form of written notes, photographs,
audio /video clippings of dance, songs or discussions, cultural events, notes on
article/artifacts collections, local exhibitions etc. Also certain data will be collected from
government agencies.
All this data, in its original form, will form a “ People’s Primary Local Database”.
This material will be the property of the local community for which they will have full rights
of deciding access rights.
II. PBR database as a part of BIS:
A computerized PBR database with uniform structure throughout the country should
be designed so that all the issues of corroboration, data exchange, scientific scrutiny and
analysis could be addressed. For this it is necessary that well designed formats useful for
populating the computerized database should be developed.
These forms will serve as guidelines and mental checklists for the agents gathering
the data from the people in the freelance manner as discussed above. The information will
then be transferred to the forms by these agents as a part of their technical work. They should
then get the filled forms ratified by some of the knowledgeable persons from amongst those
who supplied the information. These forms will then be used to populate the computerized
database. In addition, a hard copy of these forms should be deposited as the property of the
local community.
Managing information
A framework for managing PBR information has been devised & involves:
!"Recording interview/ field observations in a free lance fashion
!"Transcribing the relevant components of the data so recorded on simple data sheets
!"Computerization of data using simple data entry forms {if necessary, through a more
centralized arrangement}
!"Asking queries/ viewing reports based on local as well as other data {if necessary,
through a more centralized arrangement}
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Local people should have the final say on who will access the data made available by them
and on what terms. Therefore, all data elements will have attached to them information on
access to the particular item of information:
1. Open to all
2. Open to members of specific localities
3. Restricted - Details of restrictions, if any
Value of standardization without imposing undue rigidity. We may thus use:
!"Locality: PIN code
!"Community: People of India classification
!"Earthscape: Common convention on landscape and waterscape element
types.
!"Species: Scientific names
Commonly recorded information
Where, when?
1.Pin code of locality
2.PIN for sub-locality
3.Date of data entry
Who?
Investigating team ID
Sources of information:
Official records
Other documents
Group discussion: Name of User Group(s)
Discussion with Knowledgeable Individual(s)
Field observation
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Data Corroboration
Need for removing errors, cross-checking, ensuring consistency with standardized entities,
internal consistency and consistency with scientific knowledge
1.Data Corroboration: A. Other local team members {a} Date {b} Corroborator Id {c}
Decision {d} BIS Manager Response
2. Data Corroboration: B. Team members from nearby locality
3. Data Corroboration: C. Outside experts
Decision:
1. Confirm 2.Revise 3.Reject 4.Partially accept
Steps in PBR process
!"The setting
!"Peoplescape
!"Ecological processes
!"Earhscape
!"Lifescape
!"Knowledge
!"Ecosystem management
The setting Locally prevalent understanding of the setting may be recorded as a first step in setting the
ball rolling
!"Maps: Maps drawn on ground or simple sketch maps
!"Prevalent land classification system. This may include different classes of (i) forest
land such as reserve forest, minor forest, soppinabetta, nistar lands, lands under JFM
management, (ii) revenue lands such as gomal, gundathope, quarries etc. (iii) private
lands on which cultivation, house building, industrial sheds, shops etc may be
permitted
!"Water-bodies (iv) Rivers, streams, lakes sea coast and any regulations regarding their
ownership and use (v) Number of open and bore wells. Depth of water.
!"Customary management practices such as protection to sacred groves, regulation of
grazing on pastures.
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!"Human populations
!"Livestock
!"Irrigated and unirrigated cultivated lands, major crops
!"Significant forest produce. Quantities recorded at the Range and Divisional Forest
Offices. Forest Labour Co-operative Societies and their transactions
!"Significant freshwater fish productions. Auctions of ponds
!"Significant estuarine and marine fish productions. Number and type of fishing craft.
Fish landings at nearby fishing ports
!"Mining and quarrying activities
!"Sources and extent of air and water pollution
!"Prevalence of water borne diseases such as gastroenteritis, or of vector-borne diseases
such as malaria from Primary Health Centers
!"Educational institutions
!"Co-operative Societies
!"Community based organizations: Youth and Ladies Clubs, study groups
!"Active NGOs
Locally available information may be collected as part of PBR exercise
Official information on these issues can be fed into the information system centrally
Peoplescape
!"PBR exercises are people-centered, so the highest priority is to ensure that these
exercises are led by members of local community.
!"However, the lead may come from outside agents, Government officials, academics,
NGO activists. The foremost priority then will be to bring on board people, resident
and outsiders, who relate to the local biodiversity in a variety of different ways
Objective
!"Assign people, resident and outsiders, who relate to the local biodiversity in a variety
of different ways to major user groups (defined in relation to eco-resources) and work
with members (women, men and children) from each of these user groups
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!"Record how people, and human institutions, both from within the study locality, and
from outside, relate to the biodiversity resources of the locality and with the
associated knowledge
!"Identify main user groups; local and external
!"Create a roster of knowledgeable individuals
!"Constitute a study team with adequate participation of the various local and external
user groups and of knowledgeable individuals
Definitions Box: User groups
User groups: Groups of people with similar relationship to their ecological resource base,
differing from that of members assigned to other user groups.
Activity stream
(Group discussions)
1] Inventory of activities of various members of the local community and of local institutions,
that relate to the ecosystems goods (e.g. fuel-wood) and services (e.g. scenic natural spots) as
also bads (e.g. weeds) and disservices (e.g. crop raiding by wild life)
2] Similar inventory of activities by outsiders and outside institutions
Consider, as illustration, some local activities in a rural setting: Mala
Making fruit preserves, *Service in organized sector,
Dairy farming, *Cock fighting,
Rubber tapping, *Carpentry,
Collection of fuel wood, *Snake worship
Rubber cultivation, *Gardening,
Maintenance of chicken, *Sale of medicinal plants
Fishing, *Toddy tapping,
Timber trade, *Hunting wild meat,
Collection of leaf litter *Agricultural labour,
Basket weaving, *Collection of medicinal plants,
Crop cultivation, *Collection of wild honey,
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Some outsider activities: Mala
Hunting Agricultural labour
Dispensing herbal medicine
Sand mining Food Trade
Grass Trade Cock fighting NTFP trade
Agricultural Assistants Veterinary doctors Ecological research Tourism
Urban setting
In an urban setting the way people relate to ecosystem resources may be substantially
different. Thus in Pune, a small proportion of the people, for example, tribal Katkaris are still
largely dependent on fishing and hunting of birds around the river courses for their
livelihood. Similarly, nomadic shepherds visit hills of Pune during monsoon months and
graze their sheep and goats there for several weeks. A somewhat larger number of poorer
people depend on roadside and garden trees for their fuel energy. Others depend on shade of
avenue trees to carry out businesses like cycle repairs. Another group depends on trading
biodiversity resources such as fish or timber brought from outside. Yet others are involved in
processing of biodiversity resources such as medicinal plants. But a large fraction of urban
population is not directly connected with biodiversity resources in terms of their livelihoods,
earning their incomes from other trade, manufacture or service related activities. A fraction of
these people relates to biodiversity resources of hills of the city through recreational
activities. They may significantly influence management of ecosystem resources, for
instance, by lobbying to prohibit construction on the hills.
3] Listing significant and constantly associated activities
Thus, in Mala local people for whom agricultural labour is a significant activity are regularly
engaged in fishing, honey collection, collection of leaf litter and basketry
Outsider NTFP traders are also engaged in trade in medicinal plants, grass, mats and baskets
4] Identifying clusters of activities with high levels of association with each other as
characterizing different local and outsider user groups
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User groups & associated activities
User group Orchard
owners
Landless labourers
Medium farmers
Associated
activities
Rubber
cultivation,
Gardening,
Maintenance of chicken,
Fishing, Service in unorganized
sector, Sale of minor forest
produce, Mining sand,
Priesthood, Collection of
medicinal plants, Crop
cultivation, Sale of
medicinal plants
6] Determining the composition of the different local and outsider user groups
7] Identifying knowledgeable individuals from the different local and outsider user groups
Composition of Local User Groups
!"User Group Name
!"UG Code
!"No. of individuals including dependents
!"Activities
!"Languages
Composition of outside influences
!"External User Groups
!"User group codes
!"Primary agent
!"Secondary agent
!"Tertiary agent
!"Extent of Influence on ecosystem services
!"Effect 1. Favourable,2. Unfavourable, 3. Unclear
List of Knowledgeable Individuals
!"Sr. No.
!"Name Age group
!"Sex
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!"User group - local/external
!"Expertise
Nomadic populations
Nomadic shepherds, traders, entertainers are significant actors on the Indian ecological scene
Often possessing special knowledge of ecological habitats and biodiversity
Some like Gaddis of Himalayas or Narikuravans of Tamilnadu have been traditionally
nomadic
Others like duck-keepers of South India are newly emergent nomadic groups derived from
many different communities
Nomads will constitute local user groups in localities where they are registered as voters
Nomads will constitute external user groups in localities they visit during their
movements/migrations
Special registers may be developed with focus on a particular nomadic population
Documenting its movement/migration routes
Supplemented by PBRs for localities where they are local ug’s and PBRs for a sample of
localities on their movement/ migration routes where they constitute external ug’s
Nomadic communities register
!"Nomad type : a) traditional nomadic / traditional semi-nomadic / newly emerged
!"Pastoral /non-pastoral
!"Place where registered as voters:
!"*Village/Panchayat *PIN *Taluk *Dist *State
!"Composition : POI community/ies
!"*No of males *No of females
!"Movements in last ten years :
!"PIN of the nearest PO
!"Name of the village & dist.
!"Dist from habitation
!"Name of LSE of visit/stay as reported by members of nomdic population
!"Frequency of visits: Daily/weekly/fortnightly/monthly/bi-monthly/quarterly/half-
yearly/yearly/not regular
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!"Duration of stay in hours/days
!"From month/nakshatra *To month/nakshatra
!"Significance of the locality for their livelihood
Ecological/ economic Processes Objectives
!"Documenting ecological/ economic processes considered as being significant by local
community members
!"Prioritization of these ecological/ economic processes to identify the ones that should
serve as the focus of the PBR exercise.
!"Identification of the important components of the priority ecological/economic
processes
Thus, in Channakeshavapura village in Pavgada taluk of Karnataka, farmers consider
extensive application of chemical pesticides as an ecological process of significance. In
particular, they consider control of leaf miner of groundnut as an important component of this
process.
Similarly, in Teligram village in Hooglie district of West Bengal, farmers consider extensive
application of chemical pesticides as an ecological process of significance. In particular, they
consider effect of these pesticides on domesticated ducks as an important component of this
process.
In Mendha-Lekha village in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, tribals consider harvest of
non-timber forest produce as an ecological process of significance. In particular, they
consider harvest of tendu leaves as an important component of this process.
In further investigations, these focal processes may guide the choice of focal earthscape
elements as well as species / varieties, and the amount of effort devoted to collection of
information.
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Earthscape
Objectives
!"Documenting the setting of ecological habitats
!"Habitats defined on the scale of hectares, discernible in satellite images (though these
need not be necessarily used)
!"Individual, relatively homogeneous patches termed as Landscape
!"Elements or Waterscape Elements
Various individual landscape /waterscape elements may be assigned to a series of landscape
/waterscape element types- subtypes (LSE /WSE types- subtypes) such as Forest –
degraded semi-evergreen, or Stream- seasonal
Any locality may be viewed as a mosaic of landscape/waterscape elements assigned to
different types/ sub-types
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Folk understanding of landscapes
!"People have terms for many individual landscape elements as well as generic terms
for LSE types, for example,
!"Janaicha (=Janai’s) rahat (=sacred grove)
!"Saheb (=Sahib’s) dongar (=hill)
!"Chavdar (=Tasty) tale (=lake)
!"Use of such local names of landscape elements facilitates communication
Participatory mapping
People have an intuitive mental picture of the landscape of their surroundings, the relative
extent and interrelations of the various elements
An inventory of the LSE types and sub-types present and a sketch map can be prepared in a
participatory fashion
Activity stream
(Group discussions)
1] An inventory of the LSE types and sub-types present in the locality
2] Preparation of a sketch map of the locality
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Activity stream: national level
3] Elaboration of a common system of broad classification of LSE/WSE types for the country
as a whole capturing the variety contained in all the local inventories
4] Preparation of resource material for this set of LSE/WSE types
5] Building capacity of local community/study teams to correlate locally occurring LSE/WSE
types with their standardized designations
6] Selection of some LSE/WSE types of larger interests, e.g. Myristica swamps for
consideration in PBR exercises
Preliminary classification of LSE / WSEs
1} Grassland, 2}Scrub savanna, 3} Tree savanna, 4} Scrub-land, 5} Forest, 6} Annual
crops, 7} Tree crops, 8} Rocky outcrops, 9} Largely paved and built with some vegetation,
10}Sparsely paved and built with extensive vegetation, 11} Streams/ rivers, 12}Canals,
13}Natural pools, ponds, lakes, 14}Tanks, reservoirs, wells, tube-wells, 15} Estuaries, 16}
Swamps, marshes, 17} Open sea, 18}Muddy beach, 19} Sandy beach, 20}Rocky beach, 21}
Markets, 22} Depots, 23} Industrial undertakings / processing units, 24} Repositories, 25}
Animal farms
Earthscape sub-types
Sub-type of Open Sea WSE:
!"Coral reef
!"Lagoon
!"Neritic waters (Continental shelf)
!"Deep sea (Continental slope)
While a common country-wide system of types and sub-types is desirable, the list of sub-
types may be flexible, with scope for local level additions
7] Selection of landscape/waterscape elements representative of each LSE type for further
field studies
8] Selection of landscape/waterscape elements of some special local interest, e.g. a sacred
pool for further field studies
9] Selection of landscape/waterscape elements of some special scientific interest, e.g.
Myristica swamps for further field studies
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These may be termed focal LSE/WSEs
(field studies of focal LSE/WSEs)
10] Topography/ hydrography
11] Trends in size over time
12] Occurrence and abundance of focal taxa
13] Estimation of vegetation cover
Description of Landscape Elements
!"LSE Type * LSE code
!"Local name (if any) * Area (Ha)
!"Surrounding L/WSE types * Management
!"L/WSEs with significant links
!"Activities
!"Goods & services *Bads & disservices
!"Distance from habitation (Km)
!"Distance from motorable Road (Km)
!"Whether selected for field survey
!"Whether selected as important to some UG for further discussion
Description of Waterscape Elements
!"WSE Type
!"WSE Code - unique serial number in the study area
!"Local name (if any)
!"Maximum depth of water within the study area during last one year (m)
!"Estimated Length of streams and rivers within study area (m)
!"Average Breadth of streams and rivers within study area (m)
!"Water spread area of tanks and lakes (Ha)
!"Duration (hours or days units should be mentioned) of inundation due to flood water
during last one year
!"Management
!"No. of days / months (specify unit) water present
!"Surrounding LSE \ WSE types
!"LSE \ WSEs with significant links
!"Activities
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!"Goods & services
!"Bads & disservices
!"Distance from Habitation (Km)
!"Distance from motorable Road (Km)
!"Whether selected for field survey
!"Whether selected as important to some UG for further discussion
Description of a farmscape element
!"LSE Code
!"Sub-LSE code
!"Basis of management e.g. Ownership/ Customary/ Contract/ Unauthorised
!"Owner's Name
!"If leased then name of lessee
!"Soil related parameters
!"Drainage, Soil texture, e.g. black, loamy, sandy, rocky,….
!"Soil depth, Soil nutrient status, Water holding capacity, Soil problems
!"Period of use in terms of date / nakshatra
!"User associated with activity
!"Activity of the User
!"Focal Crop Variety
!"Crop density
!"Associated species: [a] stage [b] value
!"Bio-material, silt, water imported / exported
!"[a] Unit [b] Quantity [c] Price
Topography and trend in area of selected landscape elements
!"LSE type LSE name LSE Code
!"Topography:
!"1. Plain 2. Undulating 3. Hilly 4.Moderate slope 5.Steep slope
!"Trend in the area of the LSE: 1.Substantial increase 2. Moderate increase 3. Little /
No change 4. Moderate decrease 5.Substantial decrease
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Survey of selected waterscape elements
!"WSE type - from the master list of WSE types
!"WSE name
!"WSE site code - unique serial number
!"Nature of sampling site (water body) under survey
!"Maximum depth of water at the time of sampling (in meters)
!"Minimum depth of water at the time of sampling (in meters)
!"Bottom substrate
!"Trend in the maximum depth (in meters) at the sampling site over last 10 years
!"Trend in duration of water at the sampling site over last 10 years
Estimate of vegetation cover of selected LSEs
!"LSE name
!"LSE and sampling site code
!"Sampling point number
!"Observation :
1.Under a tree canopy 2.Covered by a shrub
3.With Herbaceous vegetation 4.On Barren land
5. Paved land 6. Inside a building
More than one option, for instance, under a tree canopy and covered by herbaceous
vegetation may be valid. If so please enter all options.
Extent of interaction with important LSE \ WSEs by User Groups – local as
well as external
!"Source of information
!"Name of User group(s) /
!"Knowledgeable individual(s)
!"Extent of interaction
!"L\WSE codes
!"User Groups
Never Rare Moderate Extensive
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History of important LSEs over 10 years from user groups
!"Details of official records / field visits
!"Name of User group(s)
!"Name of Knowledgeable individual(s)
!"LSE code LSE name
!"Change in Area
!"Vegetation strata
Big trees Shrubs Ground cover
!"Productivity of Goods & services
!"Extent of Bads & Disservices
History of important WSEs over 10 years from User groups
!"Details of official records / field visits
!"Name of User group(s)
!"Name of Knowledgeable individual(s)
!"WSE code *WSE name
!"Change
!"Catchment area *Months water available
!"Length (m) * Breadth (m)
!"Aquatic fauna *Aquatic flora
!"Productivity of Goods & services
!"Extent of Bads & Disservices
14] Documenting landscape management
15] Assessing management practices, options, experiences
16] Arriving at a management plan for the various LSE/WSEs as well as elements of special
significance for the local people
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Lifescape
Objective
!"Recording biodiversity resources and associated knowledge to promote conservation,
prudent use and benefit sharing
Focus of Activities
Species (mango, wild boar), varieties (Basmati rice, Murra buffalo), higher taxonomic
categories (bamboo, spider), functional groups of species (fuel-wood, non-edible oil seeds)
Local knowledge of biological entities
200-800 species, or higher categories, such as grasses or spiders
50-100 varieties of cultivated plants and domesticated animals
Activity stream
(Group discussions)
1] Inventory of all species, varieties, higher taxonomic categories, functional groups of
species known to people (local names, uses, values, desire for more information) ~200 -
800
2] Selection of focal taxa from local perspectives ~ 100 -300
Inventory of known life forms
!"Most common local name of species
!"Language *Scientific name
!"Values of local relevance
!"Major uses/ ill effects
!"If focal species Y/N
!"Is Life history stage to be recorded in case of focal species - Y / N
!"Is it selected for quantitative study - Y / N
!"As a species Y/N
!"As taxonomic class (from master list) Y/N
!"As functional Group (e.g. fuel, fodder, manure) Y/N
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Inventory of known varieties of domesticated plants /animals
!"Local name of species *Scientific name of species
!"Local name of variety *Language employed
!"Registration number in Registry
!"Distinctive features
!"Local names of other similar varieties
!"Time taken to reach maturity
!"Size at maturity - specify measure and unit
!"Season of Sowing, Fruiting, Reproduction
!"Susceptibility to: Pests, Diseases, Low moisture, Water logging
!"(1.H 2. M 3. L)
!"Yield – annual: Product, Measure, Unit
!"Values of local relevance
!"Major uses
!"Life history to be recorded, if focal variety-Y/N
!"Is it selected for quantitative study - Y / N
!"As a species Y/N
!"As a variety Y/N
!"As taxonomic class (from master list) Y/N
!"As Functional Group Y/N
Activity Stream: National level
3] Ascertaining scientific names, accession or registration # of varieties, global values at least
of all focal taxa of local interest ~6000
4] Inventory of a few species, varieties of global interest that may be considered for study at
PBR level ~ 1000 –1500
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Need for validation
Local names highly variable, even within a single language area
In Ayurveda:
Shankhapushpi (having a conch-shaped flower) is at least four different species:
Canscora decussata (family Gentianaceae), Clitoria ternatea (family Leguminoceae),
Evolvulus alsinoides (family Convolvulaceae) Xanthium strumerium (family Asteraceae ).
Focal taxa
Validation requires a focus on a manageable number of entities so that good resource material
can be generated, training imparted and cross-checking undertaken
About 250 species in a Panchayat, including a few (e.g. endemics) of national interest
Estimated 7000 - 7500 over all of India
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30000 – 40000 {1000 – 1500} Scientific interest
National focal species
1000- 1500 50 National interest
PBR
focal
6000 250 Local interest PBR focal
species
All IndiaPanchayat
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5] Choice of a set of focal taxa from the pool identified in the country-wide exercise ~ 7000 -
7500
6] Preparation of resource material for this set of focal taxa
7] Building capacity of local community/study teams to correlate locally known focal
species, varieties with their scientific designations ~ 300 per locality
LIFKEY: Resources to support proper identification:
A series of computer based interactive identification keys for various focal
taxa such as: Birds, Flowering plants, Freshwater fishes and Butterflies
Such interactive keys will help users become acquainted with names, looks and habits of the
common species of groups like Flowering Plants.
On user entering a set of observations, the program offers a list of candidate species in the
descending order of likelihood.
User can then go on to learn more about these species to decide on the most likely choice
It is possible that the species under consideration is not in the list of
focal species included in the key, but then the user will know of the set of species it
resembles most closely and could look at other literature to explore further possibilities.
Here is a glimpse of the key for the Flowering plants
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Feeding in information on its attributes
1. Leaf Arrangement : Opposite
2. Leaf Type : Simple
3. Bark Surface : Grooved
4. Secretion : No
5. Bark/Stem Colour : Brown
6. Leaf or leaflet Shape : Egg-shaped
7. Leaf Venation : Feathery
8. Leaf Size : Less than 20cm
Feeding in information on its attributes
9. Leaf Margin : Entire
10. Leaf Tip : Tapering
11. Leaf Surface : Smooth
12. Leaf Base : Round
13. Flower Shape : Tube-like
14. Flower Colour : White
15. Fruit Shape : Globose
16. Stem Shape : Cylindrical
Feeding in information on its attributes
17. Habit : Tree
18. Plant Structure : Woody
19. Tendrils : No
20. Stems Armed : No
21. Leaf Texture : Non-brittle
22. Flower Type : Head
24. Flower Arrangement : Many uncountable
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Confirmation of Identification by looking at the picture
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8] Noting occurrence and abundance of focal species/varieties for entire study area -
interviews
9] Occurrence and abundance of focal species/varieties in selected LSE \ WSEs- field work
10] Quantitative studies on a small set of specially selected species/varieties or functional
groups of species - field work
Focal Species/Variety Occurrence: On the basis of interviews for the entire
study area
!"Most common local name of species
!"Language
!"Scientific name
!"Most common local name of variety
!"Registration number of variety in Plant variety registry
!"Current level of abundance:
0.Absent 1.Rare 2.Moderately common
3.Abundant
!"Trend in abundance in last 10 years
1.Substantial increase 2.Moderate increase
3.Little / no changed 4.Moderate decrease
5.Substantial decrease 6.Now extinct
!"If exported out of study area *Parts exported
!"Approximate assessment of quantity exported
!"Assessment of price in rupees per unit *Unit
!"Where exported - PIN codes
!"If imported into study area *Parts imported
!"Approximate assessment of quantity exported
!"Assessment of price in rupees per unit
!"From where imported? - PIN codes
Occurrence and abundance of focal species /variety in selected LSE \ WSEs
On the basis of field observations:
!"Most common local name of species
!"Language *Scientific name
!"Most common local name of variety
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!"Registration number of variety in Plant variety registry
!"Level of abundance:
0. Absent 1.Rare
2. Common 3.Abundant
11] Recording knowledge relating to uses, management, ecology, behaviour, involvement in
art, rituals etc of focal species
Undertaking quantitative assessment
!"Conservation, and especially sustainable use requires a quantitative understanding of
the abundance of individual species, or functional groups of species such as fodder
species. Since such quantitative assessment requires considerable effort, it will be
focused on a small number of particularly significant biodiversity resources.
!"Quantitative assessment is an integral component of any programme of adaptive
management
Designing quantitative assessment
Parameters to be recorded and methods of observation appropriate to different selected taxa
will have to be devised
Quadrats of different sizes may be laid at sampling points selected for the estimation of
vegetation cover
Traps may be set out for crop pests
Quantitative assessment
!"Species/sp gr/ fn gr local name *Language
!"Scientific Names
!"Specific use of information collected
!"Readings:
!"Parameter set(1): Environmental parameters to be sampled
!"Parameter set(2): Organisms to be sampled
!"Parameter set(3): Sampling in space
!"Parameter set(4): Sampling in time
!"Parameter Set(5): Adjustments to be made to sampling procedure in light of
observations
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Growth dynamics of focal species/ varieties
!"Date of recording *LSE / WSE Code
!"Species local name *Scientific name
!"Variety
!"Stage of growth
!"Associated species, e.g. insect pest
!"Species local name *Scientific name
!"Stage of growth
!"Nature of association
12] Recording patterns of ongoing changes in species of high positive or negative value on
basis of interviews
Patterns of ongoing changes in significant species
!"Most common local name of species
!"Scientific name
!"Most common local name of variety
!"Registration number of variety in Plant variety registry
!"LSE types favoured by the variety / species / species class
!"Existing managing authority
!"Existing management system
!"Current level of abundance
!"Trend in abundance in last 10 years
!"Value attributed
!"Pertinent goods & services *Changes in g&s
!"Pertinent bads & disservices *Changes in b&d
!"Reasons: *Immediate *Long term
!"Gainer UG: *internal *external
!"Loser UG: *internal *external
!"Desired changes/ desired future
!"Desired management system
!"Suggested components for a feasible management plan
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13] Listing of management issues of significance that may pertain to species/varieties or
functional groups of species
14] Assessing management practices, options, experiences and arriving at a management plan
that may pertain to species/varieties or functional groups of species
Knowledge associated with biodiversity
Biological Diversity Act
!"Promote conservation, sustainable use and equitable sharing of benefits of India’s
biodiversity resources.
!"For this purpose promote, at all levels, good documentation of biological diversity, its
uses and associated knowledge.
!"Undertake to respect, protect (possibly through a sui generis system), and register
(chronicle) at local, state or national levels knowledge of local people relating to
biological diversity
Regulation of access to biodiversity, associated knowledge and benefit sharing
!"Examine, and decide on requests for accessing knowledge associated with biological
resources in consultation with the concerned Biodiversity Management Committees.
!"Ensure equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of innovations and practices
associated with the use of biological resources and applications and knowledge
relating thereto in accordance with mutually agreed terms and conditions between the
persons applying for such approval, local bodies concerned and the benefit claimers
Implementation calls for development of a well-designed Biodiversity Information System
(BIS) for India
BIS poses a number of formidable scientific challenges
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Knowledge, largely derived through a trial and error process, commingled with beliefs,
posing great difficulties for validation
Designing an intellectual property rights system to deal with informal knowledge systems
Components of the Biodiversity Information System
!"Codified information and knowledge, e.g. in scientific publications, patent
applications, Forest Working Plans
!"Information and knowledge in the informal sector, in oral traditions, derived through a
trial and error process, sometimes confounding empirically valid knowledge with
beliefs lacking validity
PBR focus: folk knowledge
People’s knowledge is of much significance!
New commercial applications still being developed on basis of folk traditions
Medicinal plants markets largely informal
Only 10% of species under cultivation
Harvests of less than 10% of species regulated by Forest departments
Information on stocks and trends in stocks confined to people collecting medicinal plants in
the field
Knowledge: Two contexts
!"Assertion of intellectual property rights:
Drugs, vegetable dyes, biocosmetics
Genetic resources of domesticated plants and animals
!"Promoting conservation & sustainable use
Ecology and management related knowledge and practices
Common information on source and holders of knowledge
!"Knowledge holder -individual(s) / family / group(s)
!"Age group Sex
!"Significance of knowledge being recorded in PBR -
a) Relevant to natural resource management
b) Restricted knowledge of special significance
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c) Knowledge of likely commercial potential
!"Category of knowledge – Health, genetic resources, ecology
!"Source of knowledge - Members of family/ Members of community/Members of
same locality of other community/Members of different locality and
community/Professional experts/Mass media/ Innovation
!"When was the knowledge obtained ?
!"Transfer of the knowledge: Already underway / concluded:
Conditions for transfer: Members of family/Members of community/Members
of same locality of other community/Members of different locality and
community/Professional experts/Mass media/Any interested
individual/Commercial enterprise/Academic community
!"Transfer of the knowledge: Prospective:
Conditions for transfer
!"Is the knowledge protected by any Intellectual Property Rights claims?
!"How long has the knowledge been in use ?
!"Has the knowledge holder modified or enhanced the knowledge in any way? (Yes /
No)
!"What is the documentation or recording practice followed for the knowledge?
!"Who are the beneficiaries of the knowledge?
!"What is the number of beneficiaries?
!"Is knowledge still in use?
IPR: Health
!"Species local name
!"Language
!"Scientific name
!"Part used
!"Symptoms treated
IPR: Inventory of known varieties of domesticated plants/animals
!"Local name of species *Scientific name of species
!"Local name of variety *Language employed
!"Registration number in Registry
!"Distinctive features
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!"Local names of other similar varieties
!"Time taken to reach maturity
!"Size at maturity - specify measure and unit
!"Season of Sowing, Fruiting, Reproduction
!"Susceptibility to: Pests, Diseases, Low moisture, Water logging (1.H 2. M 3. L)
!"Yield – annual: Product, Measure, Unit
!"Values of local relevance
!"Major uses
!"Life history to be recorded, if target variety-Y/N
!"Is it selected for quantitative study - Y / N
!"As a species Y/N
!"As a variety Y/N
!"As taxonomic class (from master list) Y/N
!"As Functional Group Y/N
Next steps:
!"Current proposals relate to only preliminary documentation of knowledge relevant in
context of assertion of IPRs
!"A consortium involving institutions such as NIF, NISCAIR, FRLHT, NBPPGR,
NBAGR, Anthra will have to work out a more substantial programme
Conservation and sustainable use
!"Knowledge of ecology and behaviour of target set of species and crop varieties, both
what is already in public domain, and what is novel.
!"For agro-ecosytems: knowledge of phenological stages and environmental conditions
in relation to outbreaks of pests and diseases, methods of pest and disease control.
Practical ecological knowledge
1. Classification of organisms
· In terms of growth forms/ body architecture
· Is there a concept of species as a reproductive unit?
· Is there a concept of a hierarchy of classificatory categories?
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· Names and scientific equivalents of all the operational taxonomic units – at different
hierarchical levels- recognized by people
2. Classification of ecosystems
· Different terms relating to land forms and water bodies and their definitions
· Different terms relating to soils, rocks, minerals and their definitions
· Local names of different landscape/ waterscape elements and their meanings
· Is there an understanding that particular sets of species tend to occur together, and favour
particular abiotic conditions?
3. Abiotic conditions favouring the focal species/ species group
4. Type of ecosystems favouring the focal species/ species group
5. Food organisms of the focal species/ species group
· Foraging and feeding behaviour
6. Competitors of the focal species/ species group
· Competitive behaviour
7. Predators on the focal species/ species group
· Predator avoidance behaviour
8. Parasites/ diseases of the focal species/ species group
· Parasite avoidance behaviour
9. Organisms favouring focal species/ species group, e.g. pollinators, seed dispersers
10. Life history of the focal species
· Life history stages
· Parental care
· Breeding behaviour
· Social habits
· Territorial behaviour
· Communication behaviour, displays, calls, scent markings
11. Seasonal changes in the abundance of members of the focal species/ species group
12. Consequences of ecological processes such as fire, grazing, chemical pollution on
specific ecosystems
13. Consequences of ecological processes such as fire, grazing, chemical pollution for the
focal species/ species group
14. Human influences on focal species/ species group
· Behaviour of the focal species/ species group in response to humans
· By creating abiotic conditions favouring/ disfavouring the focal species/ species group
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· By direct harvests
· By enhancing/ depleting numbers of other species favouring/ disfavouring the focal species/
species group
PEK: A Case study of tendu
Documenting people’s historical observations regarding factors influencing tendu
populations, regeneration, harvesting efforts, yields; indicators of + and – changes in
populations, regeneration, yields;
Field observations on factors and indicators and measures of tendu populations, regeneration,
harvesting efforts, yields: selected in light of reported historical observations and other
scientific considerations;
3. Simultaneous in-depth and minimal observations on factors, indicators and measures of
tendu populations, regeneration, harvesting efforts, yields to assess levels of correlation
amongst them;
4. Selection of most effective minimal set of parameters;
5. Adjustments to harvesting efforts in light of observed trends;
6.Monitoring of response to adjusted harvesting effort employing appropriate minimal set of
parameters;
7. Assessment of the value of information obtained through people’s historical
observations;
8. Adjustments to harvesting efforts in light of observed trends;
Recording knowledge
Worthwhile arriving at a shared convention of recording information for the PBR process,
and
Traditional Knowledge Digital Library
FRLHT folk health tradition documentation
All India Ethnobiology Project
And other pertinent efforts
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Ecosystem Management
Objectives
!"Recording systems of management of biodiversity elements and their habitats, on-
going changes, forces driving changes, gainers and losers from changes
!"Identifying significant management issues
!"Recording people’s perceptions of desired changes, and desired management systems
!"People’s perceptions of management responses that are considered practicable under
the present circumstances
!"Working out a management plan
!"Monitoring experiences from implementation of management plans
!"Learning from lessons of past experiences
This module relating to Ecosystem Management will naturally overlap with a number of
other on-going activities related to planning for management of natural resources, in
particular at the decentralized level. Such activities include micro-planning for management
of village forests, watershed planning in many parts of the country and preparation of
Panchayat Development Reports in Kerala. Proper links should be established to these
processes in executing this module.
Building Capacity for Resource Management
!"Develop resource material for and sustainable harvests, storage, preliminary
processing, local value addition and efficient marketing of biodiversity resources
!"Disseminate resource material and organize training programmes and field trials
Documenting extent of interaction with important LSE\WSEs by local and outside User
Groups
Recent history and patterns of ongoing changes in LSE\WSEs and in significant species/
species groups
Characterization of the current formal and informal management regime, including regime of
management of agricultural lands, and human impacts on the target set of species and crop
varieties
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Pattern of ongoing changes in L/ WSEs from User groups
!"Name of User group(s) / Knowledgeable individual(s)
!"LSE type
!"Group of LSEs undergoing similar change
!"Existing managing authority
!"Existing management system
!"Trends in area under the LSE type
!"On-going changes e.g. in biomass, species composition, soil cover, etc.
!"Immediate Reason
!"Long term reason
!"Value attributed
!"Pertinent Goods & services
!"Change in goods & services
!"Pertinent Bads & Disservices
!"Change in Bads & Disservices
!"Gainer UG internal Gainer UG external
!"Loser UG internal Loser UG external
!"Desired changes/ desired future
!"Desired management system
!"Suggested components for a management plan that can be implemented under present
circumstances
Documenting Management of Living Resources
Pattern of ongoing changes in significant species from user groups
!"Name of User group(s) / Knowledgeable individual(s)
!"Most common local name of species
!"Scientific name
!"Most common local name of variety
!"LSE types favoured by the variety / species / species class
!"Existing managing authority
!"Existing management system
!"Current level of abundance
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!"Trend in abundance in last 10 years
!"Value attributed
!"Pertinent Goods & services
!"Change in goods & services
!"Pertinent Bads & Disservices
!"Change in Bads & Disservices
!"Immediate Reason Long term reason
!"Gainer UG internal Gainer UG external
!"Loser UG internal Loser UG external
!"Desired changes/ desired future
!"Desired management system
!"Suggested components for a management plan that can be implemented under present
circumstances
Listing of Management Issues
Assessing actions taken to change management in recent past
Learning from lessons of past experiences
Agreeing on Response Options
Reaching a consensus on the desired patterns of management of landscape/ waterscape,
as well as target set of species
Preparing a Management Plan
Working out a plan of management of landscape/ waterscape, as well as target set of
species.
Response Options
!"Name of User group(s) / Knowledgeable individual(s)
!"Management Issue Ser. No.
!"Management issue
!"LSE \ WSE Type
!"Variety / Species/ species group
!"Customary / Administrative arrangements
!"Since how long have the arrangements been in practice?
!"Change, if any in management pattern over last 10 years
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!"Method(s) followed for bringing about change, if any change has occurred in
management over last 10 years
!"Desired changes/ desired future
!"Desired management system
Assessing actions taken to change management
!"Name of User group(s) / Knowledgeable individual(s)
!"Management Issue Ser. No.
!"Options from amongst which choice was made to change management pattern
!"Selected option for change in management pattern
!"From Date To Date
!"Who made the decision regarding the change?
!"Method of decision Basis of decision
!"Details of any pertinent study
!"Evaluator group
!"Details of pertinent evaluation
!"Before change After change
!"Partners in action - Local Outsiders
Responses to change in management actions
!"Management Issue Ser. No.
!"Decision which was implemented
!"Gainer UG internal
!"Gainer UG external
!"Loser UG internal
!"Loser UG external
!"Any additional response
!"Impacts
!"Lessons learnt
!"Desired changes/ desired future
!"Desired management system
!"Management responses that are considered practicable under the present
circumstances
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Learning by Doing
Learning by doing. Implementation of the plan of management of landscape/ waterscape, as
well as target set of species, accompanied by a continual process of monitoring
Background Box: Practicing Adaptive Management
Scientists now strongly advocate that management must be flexible and ready to continually
make adjustments on the basis of monitoring of on-going changes. Thus in the case of
Bharatpur the Government authorities made a rigid decision to ban all grazing, and having
once committed themselves have felt obliged to continue the ban even though it has become
clear that buffalo grazing in fact helps maintain habitat quality for the water birds. The
emerging philosophy therefore is to shift to a system involving systematic experimentation
wherein stoppage of grazing would have been tried out in one portion of the wetland, the
effects monitored and the ban on grazing either extended or withdrawn depending on the
consequences observed. This would be a flexible system appropriate to the new information
age.
The call for such a flexible system is motivated by two sets of observations. Fifty years ago,
natural resource managers felt confident that they understood enough about the systems under
management to provide broad, long term prescriptions of how to manage them so as to obtain
the highest feasible levels of yields on a sustainable basis; termed “optimum sustainable
yields”. However, experience has revealed that this was too simplistic a picture, and the
prescribed practices invariably led to over-harvests and resource exhaustion. Thus, softwood
trees used as a source of plywood, and bamboo used as a raw material for paper as well as
timber species such as matti and kindal have everywhere been exhausted from the Indian
forests. Equally, the coniferous forests of the Pacific north-west in North America have been
depleted through over-harvests. In the oceans, the cod fisheries of North Atlantic, the
anchovy fisheries of the Pacific and the plaice fisheries of the North Sea have all been
severely eroded. It has been realized that the uniform prescriptions for large spatial scales and
long time spans are quite inappropriate to complex ecological systems, since these systems
vary greatly in space and time, and are full of surprises.
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The second source of support for a shift to “adaptive management” comes from our deeper
understanding of the behaviour of complex natural systems such as weather and economy, as
well as ecology. Such complex systems can only be described adequately in terms of
interactions of a large number of elements. As a result the behaviour of such complex
systems is very much dependent on their particular histories, with every manifestation of a
system being different from every other. This renders systematic replicable experiments, so
readily undertaken with physical or chemical systems extremely difficult, if not impossible
for ecological systems. Physics has arrived at universal laws on the basis of extensive
Experiments. There are no equivalents to such universal laws in ecology; indeed, ecologists
cannot offer to natural resource managers laws powerful enough to design management
systems that would work well enough under field conditions.
Continual monitoring:
The weather systems are not as complex as ecological systems, nor are they as simple as the
physical systems whose laws provide the basis of designing air –crafts or computers. So,
weather scientists acknowledge serious limitations to their ability to predict future events,
such as the exact course of a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal. To do their best, they extensively
use historical records, such as all available records of tracks of cyclones over the last century.
While predicting the track of a given cyclone, they also make continual observations on its
course, and on all the relevant weather parameters such as pressure gradients in the region.
Using these observations as newer and newer ones are made, a process called “data
assimilation” they continually update their forecasts. In other words, they are engaged in
continually monitoring the situation and adapting their forecasts on the basis of the
information so generated.
The modern theory of management of forest or fishery resources suggests that their
management should follow such a model. It should accept that there are severe limitations to
the ability to predict future system behaviour, and therefore try to provide more limited, as
well as more detailed locality and time specific prescriptions. To do so it should use detailed
locality and time specific information. It should organize a system of on-going monitoring of
the situation on the ground and continually feed this information into updating management
prescriptions. It should also use historical information on the past behaviour of the system to
the maximal extent possible. As noted above, such a system has been termed an “ Adaptive
Management System”. This is obviously a system dependent upon careful and extensive use
of information, a system appropriate for the new information age.
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Adaptive management : A Case study of tendu
Documenting people’s historical observations regarding factors influencing tendu
populations, regeneration, harvesting efforts, yields; indicators of + and – changes in
populations, regeneration, yields;
Field observations on factors and indicators and measures of tendu populations, regeneration,
harvesting efforts, yields: selected in light of reported historical observations and other
scientific considerations;
3. Simultaneous in-depth and minimal observations on factors, indicators and measures of
tendu populations, regeneration, harvesting efforts, yields to assess levels of correlation
amongst them;
4.Selection of most effective minimal set of parameters;
5.Adjustments to harvesting efforts in light of observed trends;
6.Monitoring of response to adjusted harvesting effort employing appropriate minimal set of
parameters;
7.Assessment of the value of information obtained through people’s historical observations;
8.Adjustments to harvesting efforts in light of observed trends;
9.Monitoring to response to adjusted harvesting effort employing appropriate minimal set of
parameters;
and so on as a continuation of the process of adaptive management;
Monitoring being an integral component of any process of adaptive management.
Case studies: Mendha-Lekha village, Gadchiroli district, Maharashtra
Response Options
!"Name of User group(s) / Knowledgeable individual(s) -
Mendha village community
!"Management Issue Ser. No.- 1
Management issue - Management of bamboo harvest
!"LSE \ WSE Type - Moist deciduous
!"Variety / Species/ species group - Bambusa arundinacea
!"Customary / Administrative arrangements
1. Lease for 40 years given by Forest department to Paper mill till 1991
2. Nistar rights of people
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!"Since how long have the arrangements been in practice?
More than 40 years
!"Change, if any in management pattern over last 10 years
Village community has become one of the stakeholders in the process of bamboo
cutting from the forests of Mendha.
!"Method(s) followed for bringing about change, if any change has occurred in
management over last 10 years
1. Request to forest department to consider village community as one of the
stakeholders
2. Protest against renewal of lease to paper mill for bamboo in the forest
within the village revenue boundary with NISTAR rights of people
3. Opposition for harvesting bamboo without prior permission of the village
community
4. Alternate system of harvesting was suggested
5. Total 4 years were spent in bringing about change
!"Desired changes/ desired future
1.The forest should be declared as Village Forest under Section 28 of Indian
Forest Act 1927 and should be handed over to village community for
management.
2.Rules should be prepared with community participation.
!"Desired management system
1. Only matured bamboo poles should be harvested
2. Bamboo depot should established be in the village
3. Needs of Mendha and surrounding villages should have priority
4. Rest of the bamboo can be sold commercially to paper mill
Assessing actions taken to change management
!"Name of User group(s) / Knowledgeable individual(s) - Mendha village community
!"Management Issue Ser. No. – 1
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!"Options from amongst which choice was made to change management pattern
1. Bamboo harvest by company by making bundles in the forest
2. Harvest of whole bamboo stem without cutting into pieces managed by
village community by establishing depot in the village
!"Selected option for change in management pattern
Harvest of whole bamboo stem without cutting into pieces managed by village
community by establishing depot in the village
!"From Date To Date - Ongoing since 1999
!"Who made the decision regarding the change?
Mendha village community and the State Forest Department
!"Method of decision - Consensus within village community and consistent persuasion
with forest department and paper mill
!"Basis of decision - Experience of improper and unsustainable harvesting of bamboo
!"Conclusions of pertinent study -
1. Paper mill and labourers indulged in over harvesting since their interests lay
in immediate gains
2.Community members with a stake in long term sustenance of the resource
may undertake controlled harvests
!"Evaluator group - Study group of village community
!"Details of pertinent evaluation
1. New management seems to have led to a more sustainable system of harvest
as evidenced by improved supply of bamboo and bamboo shoots
2. It proved that people’s participation is an effective tool for forest
management
!"Evaluator group - Study group of village community
!"Partners in action (Local, Outsiders) -
1. State forest department
2. Paper mill
3. Vrikshmitra, voluntary organization
4. Friends of Mendha-Lekha Gramsabha
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Responses to change in management actions
!"Management Issue Ser. No. - 1
!"Decision which was implemented - Harvest of whole bamboo stem without cutting
into pieces managed by village community by establishing depot in the village
!"Gainer UG internal - All people of Mendha village
!"Gainer UG external - 1. Forest department 2. Paper mill 3. People from villages
surrounding Mendha 4. Bamboo artisans outside Mendha
!"Loser UG internal - No one
!"Loser UG external - 1. Paper mill 2. Forest department in terms of power
!"Any additional response - Recognition of abilities of village communities by Mendha
friends and academic institutions like CES
!"Anticipated effects - 1. Supply of bamboo resources to local farmers, artisans and
paper mill on sustainable basis 2. Increase in employment opportunities
!"Lessons learnt
1. More sustainable system of co-management between the village community and
forest department is feasible given that the village community is united and well
informed.
2. Confirmation of pivotal role of people’s participation in natural resource
management.
Adaptive management for construction of forest irrigation tank
1. Need of forest irrigation tank for wildlife, soil conservation and percolation irrigation
2. Catchment of the site was earlier worked for gulley plugging.
3. JFM scheme gave opportunity to implement construction of forest tank
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4. Due to limited funds allocation with forest department work was not completed to the
available capacity of the site
5. Hence, people decided to complete the work.
Following innovative way was implemented by people - 1. To release fish seeds
2. Protection and nurturing of fishes
3. Harvest of 1 kg of fishes (only for household consumption) in lieu of deepening of tank by
100 Cu.ft. and supporting the bund.
Thus, the work was completed which-
1. Helped in capacity building of people
2. Boosted the confidence of village community
3. A benchmark example of other villages to follow
One way to visualize application of PBRs in context of management is to focus on
sustainable management of biodiversity and biomass resources as (a) energy resources, (b)
housing material, (c) raw material for artisanal activities, and (d) resources for health
care.
In rural areas this may involve local use as well as export of local resources. In urban
areas the PBRs may generate useful inputs through study of markets for imported
resources, and through helping develop appropriate markets.
