Under Section 41 of the Biodiversity Act, 2002 and Rule 22 of Biodiversity Rules, 2004, Every local body (District/Block/Village/ULB) is required to constitute a Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC) within its area of jurisdiction for the purpose of promoting conservation, sustainable use and documentation of biological diversity including preservation of habitats, conservation of land races, folk varieties and cultivars, domesticated stocks and breeds of animals and microorganisms and chronicling of knowledge relating to biological diversity.

Composition of BMC

The Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC) as constituted shall consist of a Chairperson and not more than six persons nominated by the local body, of whom not less than one third should be women and not less than 18% should belong to the Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes.

The Chairperson of the BMC shall be elected from amongst the members of the committee in a meeting to be chaired by the Chairperson of the local body. The Chairperson of the local body shall have the casting votes in case of a tie.

These members should be drawn from amongst the herbalists, agriculturists, Non Timber Forest Produce collectors/ traders, fisher-folk, representatives of user associations, community workers, and academicians and any person/ representative of organization, on whom the local body trusts that they can significantly contribute to the mandate of the BMC. All the above should be residents within the said local body limits and be in the voters list.

Tenure of the BMC and Chairman

The BMC shall be co-terminus with the tenure of the local body or five years, whichever is less.

The Chairperson of the Biodiversity Management Committee shall have tenure of three years.