Biodiversity ACT: Access and Benefit Sharing
Published: Nov 30, 2016
Photo: Prasad
Selinum tenuifolium growing at the floor of a forest at 1870 msl, Almora district, Uttarakhand. The root of the plant is regarded as a nerve sedative and its volatile oil is used as a medicine for mental disorder. The plant is exploited extensively and is now threatened.
Abstract: The complexity in evaluating biodiversity makes it difficult to ensure equity where bio-resources are concerned. Convention of Biological Diversity and India’s Biodiversity Act are moves to bring in equity in the sharing of bio-resources for mutual benefit.
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What is ...
Ballast water is carried in ships' ballast tanks to improve stability, balance and trim. It is taken up or discharged when cargo is unloaded or loaded, or when a ship needs extra stability in foul weather. When ships take on ballast water, plants and animals that live in the ocean are also picked up. This travels from port to port, introducing invasive species in marine ecosystems. There are now global norms on how to discharge ballast water to curb this problem.
Invasive alien species are plants, animals, pathogens and other organisms that are non-native to an ecosystem, and which may cause economic or environmental harm or adversely affect human health.
A natural or artificial process by which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and held in solid or liquid form.
Riparian zones are the areas bordering rivers and other bodies of surface water. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the fifteen terrestrial biomes of the earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks are called riparian vegetation, characterised by hydrophilic plants.
Endemism is the ecological state of a species being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island nation, country or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms. These are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere.
Excessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other body of water, frequently due to run-off from the land, which causes a dense growth of plant life. Eutrophication can have serious effects, like algal blooms that block
light from getting into the water and harm the plants and animals that need it. If there's enough overgrowth of algae, it can prevent oxygen from getting into the water, making it hypoxic and creating a dead zone where no organisms can survive.
Umbrella species are species selected for making conservation-related decisions, typically because protecting these species indirectly protects the many other species that make up the ecological community of its habitat.
In biogeography, a species is defined as indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only natural process, with no human intervention. The term is equivalent to 'native' in less scientific usage.
Bioremediation is the use of microbes to clean up contaminated soil and groundwater. Microbes are very small organisms, such as bacteria, that live naturally in the environment.
The region adjacent to the border of a protected area; a transition zone between areas managed for different objectives.