Section Text
THE BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY ACT, 2002
ACT NO. 18 OF 2003
[5th February, 2003.]
An Act to provide for conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components and
fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the use of biological resources,
knowledge and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
WHEREAS India is rich in biological diversity and associated traditional and contemporary knowledge
system relating thereto.
AND WHEREAS India is a 1[Party] to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity signed at
Rio de Janeiro on the 5th day of June, 1992;
AND WHEREAS the said Convention came into force on the 29th December, 1993;
AND WHEREAS the said Convention reaffirms the sovereign rights of the States over their biological
resources;
AND WHEREAS the said Convention has the main objective of conservation of biological diversity,
sustainable use of its components and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of utilisation of
genetic resources;
2
[AND WHEREAS India is a Party to the Nagoya Protocol on access to genetic resources and the fair
and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilisation to the convention on Biological Diversity
which was adopted on the 29th October, 2010 in Nagoya, Japan;
AND WHEREAS it is considered necessary to provide for conservation, sustainable utilisation, fair and
equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of utilisation of biological resources and also to give effect to
the said Convention.]
BE it enacted by Parliament in the Fifty-third Year of the Republic of India as follows:—
(1) This Act may be called the Biological Diversity
Act,