1. As per section 7 of BDA, 2002 and Rule 4 of the Punjab Biological Diversity Rules, 2016, all biological resource-based industries, are required to intimate & take approval of Punjab Biodiversity Board before accessing the biological resource from the state. Indian Citizens or companies accessing biological resources and associated knowledge for purpose of research, biological resources normally traded as commodities as notified by Govt. of India and conventional breeding or traditional practices in use in agriculture, horticulture, poultry, animal husbandry, etc. are exempted from the purview of BDA, 2002.
2. Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Govt. of India has notified Guidelines for Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) for Biological Resources and associated Traditional Knowledge (TK) and Benefit Sharing Regulations, 2014 vide Gazette Notification dated 21.11.2014.
3. This entails that if an industry uses bioresources from any area of Punjab for commercial purpose, it will have to pay back a nominal percentage of its benefits for promoting biodiversity conservation in that very area of the State so as to ensure sustainable utilization of State’s biodiversity.
4. All the Industrial units, which are accessing biological resource from the Punjab state such as Herbal Industries (Ayurvedic Medicines, Cosmetics, Oil, Dyes etc.), Food products & beverages, Pharmaceutical & botanical products, Agro based industries and Forest based units, come under the purview of BDA, 2002.
5. The Board has got the BMCs constituted at all levels and the existing biodiversity at district, block as well as village level through preparation of People’s Biodiversity Register has also been got mapped through relevant State Development Departments. All the existing industries, herbal units etc. utilizing biological resources as raw material have also been inventorized and this information is being updated on regular basis based on the existing data of Ministry of Ayush, GoI and National Medicinal Plant Board.
6. As the requisite institutional mechanism and legal frame work as envisaged under the Act has been established by the Board, the next step required to be taken is the implementation of Access Benefit Sharing (ABS) mechanism prescribed in the Act. As per rule 4 of Punjab Biological Diversity Rules, 2016, all Indian Citizen or industries, associations and organizations registered in India would give prior intimation and take approval from Punjab Biodiversity Board for accessing any biological resource from Punjab for commercial utilization by submitting application in the prescribed form along with fee of Rs. 5,000/- in form of the Demand Draft.

National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), SBBs/UTBCs and BMCs are the key regulators at the national, state and local level respectively which facilitate appropriate access to bio-resources by users (who require access for commercial utilization, undertaking research etc.) and are responsible for sharing a fair and equitable portion of the benefits with the providers or communities (who are custodians of bio-resources and dependent on them for sustaining their livelihood) of bio-resources for conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.