Policy Model of The Biological Diversity Act, 2002

This act follows an incremental model as already certain Acts [like Indian Forest Act, 1927; Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980] had been in place, which directly or indirectly tried to serve the goals of Biodiversity Act, 2002.

For example, India Forest Act and Forest (Conservation) Act deal with management of forests and conservation of forestland respectively. Wildlife (Protection) Act is for the protection of wild animals, birds and plants, and basically aims at protecting, propagating or developing wildlife or its environs through national parks, sanctuaries etc. In addition, the Act has a provision to prohibit picking etc. of specified plants.

However, they leave out certain leave out certain things like:

1) Wild flora outside the notified sanctuaries and National parks (many of which located outside forest areas including deserts, coastal and marine systems, grasslands, riverine systems, wetlands)

2) Although, the act provides for protection of a number wild animals which are included in Schedules, it leaves out a large number of invertebrates (out of the 81,000 animal species so far described from the country about 68,000 are invertebrates) and micro organisms.

The Act also does not deal with the following:

- Issue of access to biological resources and benefit sharing

- Protection of traditional knowledge and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of such knowledge.

The Biodiversity Act, 2002 covers the above things, which were missed out of the previous rules. Therefore, this act is just the continuation of the past government policies with some incremental modifications to include the new demands created by different groups at both national and international level.