Take a look at the essential events, concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up your knowledge. Here’s your UPSC Current Affairs knowledge nugget for today on Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing.Recently, the National Biodiversity Authority disbursed Rs 1.19 crore under the Access and Benefit Sharing mechanism to 29 State Biodiversity Boards and one Union Territory Biodiversity Council to support biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of biological resources. In this context, let’s know about the key international framework related to biodiversity and the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing.1. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) came out of the same 1992 Rio Earth Summit that gave rise to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). CBD aims to protect global biodiversity, restore natural ecosystems, and ensure that benefits from the world’s biological resources are equitably distributed.2. Countries, including India, had agreed to CBD in 1994. There was a general agreement on three things:(i) Indiscriminate use of biological resources needs to be halted,(ii) Sustainable use of these resources, for their medicinal properties, for example, needed to be regulated,(iii) People and communities helping in protecting and maintaining these resources needed to be rewarded for their efforts.Story continues below this ad3. The CBD is not just about the conservation and restoration of ecosystems. It is also about the sustainable use of natural resources and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of these resources.4. The CBD has given rise to two ‘supplementary’ agreements — the Cartagena Protocol of 2003 and the Nagoya Protocol of 2014. Both agreements take their names from the places where they were negotiated.5. The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety seeks to protect biodiversity from genetically modified organisms by ensuring their safe handling, transport and use. Genetically modified crops, for example, can interfere with natural ecosystems in ways that might not yet be fully understood. That is the reason why GM crops are cultivated on segregated farms.Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit6. The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing deals with the commercial utilisation of biological and genetic resources, for example, by pharma companies. It asks the host countries to provide access to its genetic resources in a legal, fair and non-arbitrary manner and offers them a fair and equitable share of benefits arising out of the utilisation of those resources.Story continues below this ad7. It lays down the general principles of the rights and claims of countries on their bio-resources and rules for their commercial utilisation.8. Under this mechanism, biodiversity-rich countries needed to provide access to their biological resources to those wanting to use them for research or commercial reasons, and the user agencies, in turn, were mandated to share the benefits of their use with the local communities. This access and benefit-sharing works at both the domestic and the international levels.India’s First National Report on Nagoya Protocol9. India has submitted the First National Report (NR1) on the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing . The report was submitted on 27th February 2026, by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), in collaboration with the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA). It is in accordance with Article 29 of the Protocol on Monitoring and Reporting.ALSO READ | Knowledge Nugget | State of the World’s Forests 2026: Key highlights for UPSC Exam10. The report covers the period from 1 November 2017 to 31 December of last year. It highlights the country’s progress in implementing the Nagoya Protocol while contributing to Target 13 of India’s updated National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP).Story continues below this ad Target 13 of the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP). (AI-generated)11. According to the report, India implements the Access and Benefit-Sharing mechanism through a three-tier institutional framework comprising the:(i) NBA,(ii) State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) or Union Territory Biodiversity Councils (UTBCs) at the sub-national level;(iii) Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) at the local level, constituted by elected local bodies.This decentralised system has enabled coordinated action at national, state, and local levels.Story continues below this adBEYOND THE NUGGET: What were the outcomes of COPs 15 and 16 of CBD?1. Signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity meet every two years — not annually like the climate meetings — to work on a global plan to halt biodiversity loss and restore natural ecosystems.2. COP 15: It was held in Montreal, Canada in 2022. It delivered a new agreement called the Global Biodiversity Framework, which contains four goals and 23 targets that need to be achieved by 2030. The GBF is being compared to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change that is guiding global climate action.3. COP 16: It was held in Cali, Colombia from 21 October to 1 November 2024. The Conference ended with the establishment of the Cali Fund for Digital Sequence Information (DSI), aimed for equitable sharing, especially with Indigenous and local communities. It also aimed to secure USD 200 billion per year by 2030 to fund biodiversity initiatives globally.4. COP 17: It is scheduled to be held in Yerevan, Armenia from 19–30 October 2026.Post Read QuestionConsider the following statements : (UPSC CSE 2023)Story continues below this ad1. In India, the Biodiversity Management Committees are key to the realisation of the objectives of the Nagoya Protocol.2. The Biodiversity Management Committees have important functions in determining access benefit sharing, including the power to levy collection fees on the access of biological resources within its jurisdiction.Which of the statements given above is/are correct?(a) 1 only(b) 2 only(c) Both 1 and 2(d) Neither 1 nor 2Answer Key(c)(Sources: cbd.int, Biodiversity COP16: What is it, what is on agenda this year, What is the COP15 Biodiversity Commitment, delivered at Montreal?, Biodiversity under threat, what we need to do)Click here to read the UPSC Essentials magazine for October 2026. 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