India has released its first ever report on the Nagoya Protocol earlier this year, a mechanism that tracks the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of traditional knowledge and biological resources.
India submitted the report on February 27, to the Convention on Biological Diversity which governs the Nagoya Protocol where India has been a signatory since 1992. The Nagoya Protocol makes it mandatory for member states to create legal frameworks for access and benefit sharing (ABS) from biological resources, which are shared with provider countries and local communities after use. India’s ABS framework has been in place since 2014, and was revised in 2025.
Between 2017 and 2025, 12,830 approvals were granted under the ABS framework, the report says. The National Biodiversity Authority granted 5,913 approvals for activities such as research, bio survey and bio-utilisation, commercial utilisation, transfer of research results, intellectual property rights (IPR), and third party transfers. An additional 6,917 approvals were granted by state and union territory biodiversity boards for commercial utilisation by Indian entities.
Commercial users — like pharmaceutical companies and research establishments — are obligated to pay a share of revenue or turnover towards meeting ABS obligations. Through ABS, the National Biodiversity Authority collected a total of ₹216.31 crores, of which ₹139.69 crores were disbursed to benefit claimers.
The report also illustrates examples of ABS in India, calling itself “a global front-runner in turning the idea of Access and Benefit Sharing into practical reality.” For example, in Dapur a village in Maharashtra, microbes in the soil were found to have “significant probiotic potential” and were accessed by Advanced Enzyme Technologies Limited, a research company. A benefit sharing agreement was drawn, obligating Advanced Enzyme Technologies to pay a share of 0.5% of the annual gross ex-factory sale price for products sold which were derived from the use of bioresources. The agreement raised ₹71 lakhs in benefits. “This highlights that effective ABS implementation requires clear traceability of bioresources and a direct linkage between utilisation and benefit- sharing obligations,” the report says.
The report comes after India made significant changes to its ABS framework in 2025 to improve the ease of doing business. A part of these changes was to exclude companies earning a turnover of less than ₹5 crores from ABS obligations, and to exclude custodians of “codified traditional knowledge” from claiming benefits. Codified knowledge refers to knowledge documented in specific books listed under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.
The national report also acknowledges challenges in compiling ABS data. “These include the need to strengthen digital systems for improved monitoring and data integration, to develop appropriate methodologies for valuation of biological resources and to enhance capacity at state and local levels,” the report points out.
Banner image: Tendu leaves being dried after harvest. Representative image by Subodhkiran via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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