NEW DELHI: Recognising local communities as custodians of India’s rich biological heritage, the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), which regulates access to the country’s biological resources, has shared monetary benefits generated out of use of such resources by commercial entities, with local communities in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh for pursuing conservation-related activities.Though the released amount of Rs 1.36 crore appears to be quite small, the initiative demonstrates the implementation of a mechanism of sharing benefits with local communities under the new Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) rules notified by the NBA under the amended Biological Diversity Act in April.The ABS mechanism regulates access to biological resources, while ensuring fair and equitable sharing of benefits with local communities based on the annual turnover of the person or the industry accessing those resources.The released amount represents a tangible payment after a commercial entity accessed microorganisms from the soil and industrial effluent samples (bio-resources) for producing fructo-oligosaccharides products in both the states. The money will be delivered to local communities through the state biodiversity boards of Maharashtra and UP, and their respective biodiversity management committees.“This financial strategy highlights the NBA’s proactive role in recognising and rewarding local communities who stand as the essential custodians of India’s rich biological heritage,” said the environment ministry in a statement on Friday.The NBA’s move also aligns with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) at Montreal, Canada, in 2022, which covers access and benefit-sharing from the utilisation of genetic resources, associated traditional knowledge and digital sequence information.This is the second such example of sharing of benefits generated through the use of biological resources with communities in India within a month.The NBA had in September sanctioned funds of Rs 82 lakh for local people for conservation of the endemic plant species Red Sanders in Andhra Pradesh. The fund was collected from users of Red Sanders and channelled back to the concerned stakeholders for conservation-related activities.