Developing People’s Biodiversity Registers for 56 Villages and 11 Municipalities in Goa

ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability, South Asia has been selected as the Technical Support Group (TSG) by Goa State Biodiversity Board to support the development of People’s Biodiversity Registers. Mandated as per the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, each Biodiversity Management Committee has to document the biological diversity and traditional ecological knowledge in the form of the People’s Biodiversity Register. This register also has legal sanctity.

For centuries, indigenous and local communities have maintained virtual databases or registers of traditional knowledge, passing this on through oral traditions, without which their knowledge would have disappeared. The CBD has acknowledged that the traditional knowledge related to medicinal plants, agricultural practices, animal rearing, has a crucial impact on sustainable development, community progress, and overall wellbeing. Biopiracy is another factor for the need to protect traditional knowledge. However, a lot of this knowledge is being lost at a rapid rate.

Within this context, the concept of PBRs was conceived. Under Section 22(6) of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, it is stated that the Register shall contain comprehensive information on availability and knowledge of local biological resources, their medicinal or any other use, or any other traditional knowledge associated with them.

As a Technical Support Group, ICLEI South Asia is supporting the development of these PBRs in 56 villages and 11 municipalities in Goa.

Specific Objectives

• Support the development of People’s Biodiversity Registers in 56 villages and 11 municipalities
• Build capacity of the Biodiversity Management Committees to develop and update the PBRs
• Support the Biodiversity Management Committee in the validation of the PBR