| Introduction
Biodiversity
is the biological capital of our planet and it forms the foundation
upon which the human civilization is built. The history of human
civilization and material culture and development of economic
systems are all intimately associated with the use and management
of biological and other natural resources. The biodiversity and
the associated indigenous knowledge systems are the two invaluable
capital assets of countries like India. They can be utilized profitably
to generate a number of IPR-covered high value products and technologies
for domestic as well as international trade.
Blessed
with unique geographic position, distinct physiographic, edaphic
and climatic zones and gradients, the Indian subcontinent abodes
a very rich and diverse flora and fauna with high percentage of
endemism. According to the latest assessment, it is placed as
10th among the plant rich nations of the world and 4th among the
Asian countries. Out of the 25 global 'hot spots' of Biodiversity
two are located in India - The Eastern Himalaya and the Western
Ghats. Based on the uniqueness of the phytogeographical zones
and pattern of endemism, 25 micro hot spots centres of endemic
flora have also been identified in India.
India's
species richness is complemented by enormous genetic diversity
found within individual species. This indeed makes India one among
the 12 mega gene centers of the world. .The Indian Gene Centre
(Vavilov's Hindustani' Centre) is considered to be the center
of origin and domestication of as many as 356 major and minor
crop plant species and as many as 326 wild relatives of crop plants.
India's
biodiversity is thus marked by the occurrence of diverse types
of ecosystems, high species diversity with high incidence of endemism,
and enormous genetic diversity in crop plants, domesticated animals
and their wild relatives. The rich biodiversity of India is matched
with an equally rich cultural diversity, and there exists a unique
wealth of Traditional Knowledge System (TKS) associated
with the conservation and sustainable use of biological resources.
TKS embody a plethora of unique time-tested knowledge, wisdom,
beliefs, traditions and practices associated with conservation
and sustainable use of biogenetic resources. The traditional knowledge
base of Indian ethnic and local communities is perhaps the richest
in the Third World. India's tribal and folklore traditions, particularly
the traditional medicine systems are rich and unique. And, India's
herbal or traditional medicine systems have the potentials to
capture the world drug and pharmaceutical markets, provided the
country strives to bring in substantial improvement and value
addition to the existing traditional knowledge base through appropriate
scientific and technological intervention and policy support.
India has an excellent network of R & D in biodiversity and
biotechnology managed by various government departments, agencies,
universities, and a few private foundations and companies.
The
biological wealth and associated traditional knowledge systems
of India offer excellent opportunities ahead for harnessing the
biocultural diversity for generation, protection and maintenance
of intellectual property rights (IPR) in the domains of herbals
and other national product development technologies and related
knowledge-based commercial and industrial ventures.
The
UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which was signed
by over 171 countries in June 1992 at Rio and came into force
on 29th December, 1993, explicitly recognizes the sovereign rights
of the States over their biological resources and binds the signatory
nations to three important goals - to respect,preserve and maintain
Traditional Knowledge (TK), to promote application of TK and to
encourage equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization
of such knowledge, innovations and practices with the TK holders.
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