ARINDAM BARUAH

ADVOCATE FROM GAUHATI HIGH COURT

ABSTRACT

The research paper is an attempt to understand the concept of the Access and Benefit Sharing mechanism provided under the Convention of Biodiversity, 1992 in the context of India wherein, the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 incorporates the same spirit. The purpose of this benefit-sharing is to enable the indigenous people, who are the guardians of not only the biological resources but also their related traditional knowledge. Therefore, there is no ambiguity in the fact that the indigenous people are also the stakeholders and stands to benefit from this mechanism. Further, on the other end is the novel concept of Intellectual Property Asset Management which seeks to aim at adducing maximum profits out of the planned utilization of various intellectual property assets. There are various ways of successfully managing such assets and the same shall be elaborately discussed here. The objective of this paper is to bring together all these three concepts and analyze it in context i.e. to amalgamate them to reach a harmonious collaboration of all. The solution to the problem of how intellectual property asset management principles can be used to access and benefit-sharing agreements that seek to benefit holders of traditional knowledge is sought to be obtained through this paper. Various issues like what clauses should be incorporated into such agreements to ensure maximum benefit sharing and protection of the rights of the providers are attempted to be addressed through the paper. The research methodology is a combination of doctrinal method as well as empirical method to find out the gap in awareness amongst the indigenous people about the benefits of the access and benefit-sharing mechanism. The result of the empirical study conducted by way of a field survey in Subankhata Reserve Forest in Baksa District of Assam was that there is a total lack of awareness amongst the indigenous people about the value of their traditional knowledge as well as the benefits of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and the access and benefit-sharing mechanisms therein. Even the Forest Range Officer who is supposed to be the Member-Secretary of the Biodiversity Management Committee of the jurisdictional forest range was not aware of the proper functioning of the Act. The uniqueness of this paper lies in the improbable integration of intellectual property asset management principles into the access and benefit agreement as well as into the various provisions of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, and especially the role of the Biodiversity Management Committees. This research paper will make a valuable contribution to developing a better understanding of the interplay of various principles, which while at the onset, might appear to be totally opposite, can actually be successfully integrated into another mechanism that has a completely different objective.

Keywords: access and benefit sharing, biological resources, indigenous people, intellectual property asset management, traditional knowledge.