Other features regarding conservation: For conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, the Act provides for a biodiversity impact assessment to be carried out before a proposed project can begin in an area. A plain reading of the Act together with the Rules brings out the following issues:

1. The constitution of BMCs by local bodies does not ensure actual representation of the stakeholders. Definition of local body leaves out gram sabha or other village assemblies. Since the local body has to appoint/select the BMC, the political affiliation and relationship between a village and the panchay at body will play an important role in the constitution and functioning of the BMC.

2. The Peoples Biodiversity Register (PBR)is a document that records the diversity of species of flora, fauna, crops, livestock etc. As on date, there is no legal protection available for the knowledge recorded in the PBR. This is  problematic when it comes to the question of access to this document. Even though communities create and maintain a database of their resources of knowledge, there is no requirement that their consent would be sought when it  comes to accessing the information in the PBRs.

3. Though the Act has clearly spelt out criteria for rejecting applications, it has not listed community consent as one of them. Rule 7 is clearly biased, as it gives BMC only an advisory role in the of grant approvals. Thus the act has grey areas, which need to be sorted out for the maximum benefit of the communities.

Patents Act:

TRIPS agreement demands the member countries to abide by certain requirements in their patent laws. The main features of the Patent act relating to biological resources and traditional knowledge are as follows:
Plants, animals, seeds, varieties and species and any part of the same and essentially biological processes for production or propagation of plants and animals are not patentable. Microorganisms alone are patentable under this section.

Plant, plant variety, seeds and animals cannot be patented, neither can their parts be patented. Life forms other than microorganisms cannot be patented. Microorganisms modified, not natural can be patented.

Cells, cell lines, part of cell like mitochondria, plasmids genes and DNA can not be patented. However, the production process of the seed by a non-biological means can be patented
An invention, which effectively is traditional knowledge or the components of such invention, is an aggregation or duplication of known properties of traditional knowledge.

The term traditional knowledge included innovations and the volume of knowledge continually developed, acquired, used, practiced, transmitted and sustained by communities through generations supported by their ecology, environment, life styles, attitudes, societies and culture. It states that an Indian patent may be opposed or revoked if the invention was anticipated having regard to the knowledge, oral or otherwise, available within any local or  indigenous community in any country.

A US company wanted a patent on a fungicide developed from natural extracts from the seed of neem tree. A European patent was granted for this application. A legal challenge on this patent was filed in June 1995 on basis of not fulfilling two criteria of patentability: novelty and inventiveness .The European Patent Office upheld the objection on the basis that the technique was well known to local farmers in India, there was no inventive step involved and thus such indigenous knowledge could not be patented. Dried neem leaves have been used for centuries in India to protect clothes and grains against fungus and the finding is not new. Patents encourage such misappropriation of indigenous knowledge.

It is important for the communities to know that they are the knowledge owners and a company using their knowledge and creating market for that cannot take patents on it. Knowledge about Prior Informed Consent and Benefit Sharing is important so that they can challenge the extraction of local bioresources like medicinal plants. Discussing the atent law and particularly the law on traditional knowledge with the communities makes them aware of their proprietorship on the indigenous knowledge. We try to encourage communities to think that they have first rights to establish small cottage industries; small enterprises,  cooperatives etc. based on local bioresources and that if someone else is trying to do it, they cannot do so without their permission and without sharing profits with them.
The existing patent law does not allow patents on products derived from indigenous knowledge (IK) and those existing in the Indian Systems of Medicine (ISM).

These are products developed by local communities and are the result of generations of creative and innovative work. This knowledge is their intellectual property. Allowing others to patent it would be unethical and illegal. Rural India still relies heavily on ISM (about 70%according to WHO)and it should remain available to them. Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha form of medicines are included in the Indian System of Medicine.

Geographical Indications

Act: A geographical indication may be defined as an indication that is used to identify agricultural, natural or manufactured goods originating from a definite geographical territory having a special quality or reputation or other characteristics. The manufactured goods should be produced or processed or prepared in that territory. The primary function of a GI is to inform the consumer of a product about the place of its production or manufacture and thus assure him about its specific quality, reputation or other characteristics, which are essentially due to its geographical origin.

The Act covers agricultural, natural and manufactured goods, where the quality or reputations of the product depends on its geographical origin i.e. the place where it is grown or manufactured. 

This law is a way of rewarding a community in a specific location for the exclusive characters of the good produced in their area. Thus if a community develops a product that posseses  special characteristics then they can claim protection over it.

To use a famous example, the delectable, long grained, aromatic Basmati rice is the result of the careful breeding and selection work undertaken by generations of farmers in India and Pakistan. This fact, however, did not stop the American company Rice Tec from taking out a patent on Basmati in the US. This is an act of pure biopiracy: a theft of the resources and 'intellectual property' belonging to the farmers of South Asia. Implementing this patent could mean the loss of roughly 400 million US dollars worth of exports for India, leading to significant income loss for Basmati rice producers. India challenged the said patent and won the case.

Examples of Geographical Indications:

Basmati Rice, Darjeeling Tea, Kanchipuram Silk, Alphonso, Nagpuri chappal, Mysore silk etc.

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