Vandana Shiva Denounces Bill

The biodiversity Bill 2000 introduced in the Lok Sabha in its just ended session has been dubbed as an eyewash by the environmentalist Vandana Shiva who was a member of the expert panel constituted by the environment and the forests ministry to draft the biodiversity conservation law.

Shiva, who heads the Delhi-based NGO Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, says in a release that the Bill, far from creating legislative safeguards to prevent biopiracy, has sought to create mechanisms for approval of biopiracy-based patents.

The Bill also empowers the government to prevent Indians from accessing Indian biodiversity, But strangely, the Bill gives this right to the global seed industry, Shiva says. Besides, there is no safeguard in the Bill to prevent the adverse impacts of genetically engineered crops and organisms on Indian biodiversity.

Also, it does not provide for biosafety which should have been a national obligation, she says.

Shiva's point is that the biodiversity legislation is a follow-up of the International Convention on Biodiversity which aims at preventing biopiracy and biodiversity destruction. But instead, she says, the Bill as tabled in Parliament will encourage biopiracy and cause biopollution.

She has, therefore, pleaded that the Bill should be withdrawn and the draft prepared by the expert group should be used in its place as the basis of the proposed new law.