History of "Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD)" formation

Biodiversity is the wide varieties of living elements of earth in its natural forms. It includes all the native plants, animals and microorganisms that live in our planet and the process that sustain life on earth. Scientists have become able to recognize only 13 million species among the estimated 100 million species of earth. In different environment and geographical location the pattern of a specific crop or livestock differs. It becomes due to different genetic form of the particular species. Another feature of the biodiversity is ecosystem. An ecosystem is a community of organisms that interact with each other and non living components for sustainable development and adaptation to changing conditions. There are different ecosystems depending on the environment of the location. The biodiversity plays a great role to the economic and social development of human society. According to a report of the Convention of earth, “at least 40 per cent of the world’s economy and 80 per cent of the needs of the poor are derived from biological resources. In addition, the richer the diversity of life, the greater the opportunity for medical discoveries, economic development, and adaptive responses to such new challenges as climate change”. Biodiversity includes all the natural properties of the earth. In principle it has been recognized that the local people are the sole proprietor of the indigenous genetic resources.

A new trend has been developed in the free trade economy. Most of the UNO members have admitted that the biodiversity is a global asset. Unfortunately, ecosystem and the species of the earth are decaying at an alarming rate due to human activities. In this context, most of the countries felt the need to formulate a guideline to protect the biodiversity of our planet. United Nations of Environment Program (UNEP) set up a working group of experts on environment protection to assess the need of a convention for the protection of biodiversity and fix the agenda of the convention. The expert committee emphasized on two points. One is “sharing the cost and benefits between the developed and developing nations” and the other is “protecting the innovation by local people”.

In February 1991, the expert committee was renamed as Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee. In November 1992, the committee was dissolved after adopting the agreed text of the “Convention on Biological Diversity” in Nairobi Conference. The signature of the Convention was opened on for 5^th June, 1992, at Rio Earth Summit and closed on 4^th.June, 1993. Total 168 countries signed the convention. The convention starts its work from 29^th December, 1993. The first session of the Convention took place at Bahamas from 28 November – 9 December, 1994.

“Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD)” is another bold step of the world community for conservation of nature and fair sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.