Preserving Heritage, Fostering Growth: The Legal Nexus Between Traditional Knowledge and Modern Bio-Governance

Abstract

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) embodies thousand-year-old indigenous knowledge indispensable to biodiversity, public health and sustainable management of natural resources. Today, in this modern, socio-legal milieu, to promote responsible bio-innovation and simultaneously deter private exploitation of bio-resources by virtue of new trends related to bio-resource commercialisation, one requires regulation with such balance. The article presents a doctrinal examination on the existing intersection of TEK protection with modern bio-governance principles. Through an analysis of legal provisions of Biological Diversity Act, and the CBD Convention with the Nagoya Protocol at its centre, the article assesses the efficacy of the three-tier institutional set-up including the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) and the grassroots Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) towards operationalisation of the Act. Additionally, it explores defensive mechanisms like Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL)and positive methods like Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS). The article argues that establishing decentralised custodianship via People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBRs) builds an effective bridging infrastructure between local communities and industries, resulting in socio-economic benefits for all stakeholders. The paper suggests innovative policy measures by introducing digitalisation of compliance procedures, easing non-commercial academic research, enhancing benefit sharing mechanisms to boost People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBRs) and strengthening its impact to benefit grass root custodial communities, thus, actualising the overall spirit of the sustainable development paradigm at national level.