National Biodiversity Authority

The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) is a statutory autonomous body under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India established in 2003. Its main function was to implement the provisions under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. 

Biological Diversity Act 


The Biological diversity Act (2002) mandates implementation of the provisions of the Act through decentralized system with the NBA focusing on advice the Central Government on matters relating to the conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of its components and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of biological resources; advice the State Government in the selection of areas of biodiversity importance to be notified under Sub-Section (1) of Section 37 as heritage sites and measures for the management of such heritage sites.

The NBA with its Headquarters in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India delivers its mandate through a structure that comprises of the Authority, secretariat, SBBs, BMCs and Expert Committees.

Initiatives of National Biodiversity Authority

Centre for Biodiversity Policy and Law

The Government of Norway and India decided to collaborate and a letter of intent for technical and institutional cooperation was signed on 19th November, 2010 by between Mr. Erik Solheim, Norwegian Minister of Environment and Development and Mr. Jairam Ramesh in New Delhi. The main objectives of the Centre include:

  • To provide professional support, advice and expertise to the Government of India and Norway on a sustained basis on matters relating to biodiversity policies and laws at the national level, as well as in international negotiations relating to biodiversity in multilateral forums.
  • To develop professional expertise in biodiversity related policies and laws, inter alia through encouragement of research, development and training in matters relating to Convention on Biological Diversity, as well as its interface with other multilateral environment agreements and United Nations bodies.
  • To develop and implement an array of capacity building programmes through multidisciplinary research and customise training programmes for a wide range of stakeholders focusing on human resource development.
  • To facilitate interactive information sharing through web conferencing, web seminars and virtual meetings involving relevant research centres and environmental law associations within India, Norway and other countries where such expertise is available.
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India-ASEAN

The NBA has proposed to collaborate with ACB for strategic, programmatic, institutional and long term cooperation on biodiversity related issues. The broad areas of cooperation suggested between the ACB and NBA includes:
  • Building human resource and institutional capacities of ASEAN member states on issues of biodiversity governance, information management and use on biodiversity, biodiversity policy development and implementation, biodiversity law.
  • Strengthening capacities of ASEAN member states on issues of MEA negotiations, implementation and compliance issues through developing structured training programmes, workshops, staff exchanges and fellowship programmes.
  • Establishing an India-ASEAN biodiversity science-policy interface initiative.

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UNEP-GEF

The GEF project on ABS is the first ever global project - a programmme to access genetic resources, assess their economic value and share the benefits arising out of them among the local people. This project is implemented in the 5 states of India namely Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim and it is funded by Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and Government of India.

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National Biodiversity Authority
5th Floor, TICEL Bio Park,
CSIR, Road, Taramani, 
Chennai - 600 113
Tel: 91-44-2254 1805
Fax: 91-44-2254 1073
E-mail: chairman@nba.nic.in
Website: http://nbaindia.org/

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