Introduction
India's biodiversity regime has progressively evolved to balance sovereign biological rights, conservation priorities, and global commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Nagoya Protocol. The notification of the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Regulations, 2025, alongside recent statutory amendments, represents a significant modernization of India's biosecurity and genetic resource governance in the biotechnology era.
Evolution of India's Biodiversity Legal Framework
India's regulatory architecture has undergone critical shifts over the past two decades to accommodate international treaties and domestic commercial dynamics:
- Biological Diversity Act, 2002: Enacted pursuant to the 1992 CBD, it established a decentralized three-tier institutional structure—the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) at the national level, State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) at the state level, and Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) at the local panchayat and municipal levels. It formalized the mandate of Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS).
- 2023 Amendment and 2024 Rules: The Biological Diversity (Amendment) Act, 2023, along with the Biological Diversity Rules, 2024, decriminalized offences, shifted adjudication to civil penalties, exempted codified AYUSH practitioners and cultivated medicinal plants from prior intimation, and introduced simplified online application mechanisms.
- ABS Regulations, 2025: Replacing the 2014 guidelines, these regulations harmonize domestic access and commercialization mandates with CBD COP16 (Cali Summit) outcomes and technological advancements.
Key Changes and Positive Impacts of the 2025 Regulations
- Inclusion of Digital Sequence Information (DSI): By bringing DSI within ABS compliance, the regulations address a major regulatory gap where genomic data was utilized in research and development without physical biological material transfers.
- Graded Turnover Slabs: To support Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), firms with an annual turnover of less than ₹5 crore are exempted from ABS obligations, while graded ABS rates (0.2% to 0.6%) apply progressively to larger enterprises.
- Protection of Threatened and High-Value Species: Commercial utilization of threatened species, such as Red Sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus), is subjected to an enhanced mandatory ABS levy ranging from 5% up to 20%.
Critical Concerns and Regulatory Challenges
- Dilution of Deterrence and Biopiracy Risks: The replacement of criminal imprisonment with civil monetary penalties adjudicated by executive officers may turn financial liabilities into a mere 'cost of doing business' for well-capitalized multinational entities, weakening deterrence against biopiracy.
- Revenue Depletion for Local Communities: Broad exemptions granted to cultivated medicinal plants enable large-scale commercial processors to bypass benefit-sharing requirements, directly depleting the revenue pool of local BMCs.
- Reduction in Community Entitlements: The direct financial share earmarked for primary local benefit-claimers has been reduced from 95% under the 2014 framework to 85–90% under the 2025 regulations, curtailing grassroots financial empowerment.
Conclusion
While the 2025 regulatory overhaul effectively aligns domestic rules with digital biotechnology and eases compliance for commercial industry, its long-term viability depends on closing enforcement loopholes. Sustainable biodiversity governance requires reconciling industry competitiveness with the CBD's core principle of fair and equitable benefit-sharing with indigenous and local custodian communities.