Transferring equity to coastal communities

For 30 years, India’s conservation framework has stopped at the shoreline. Our regulatory focus has been landlocked, prioritising thick protocols for forest genetics, medicinal shrubs, flora, and inland cultivars. While land resources were protected through structured systems, our 7,516-km coastline and vast Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) remain un-operationalised despite the existence of law. By 2026, this regulatory gap and the relatively lesser focus on our blue seas represent a direct leak in our economic sovereignty. We can no longer afford to treat our waters as a blind spot while the global bio-economy moves offshore.

The mandate of Access Benefit Sharing (ABS) ensures that the profits from nature support its protector. If a commercial entity generates wealth from a biological resource, a fair share of those profits must return to the local communities who serve as its traditional custodians. In the Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh, ABS collections from Red Sanders resources are now being channelled through the State Biodiversity Fund. These resources are then disbursed to village-level Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) and individual farmers. This formal Benefit Sharing Fund mechanism ensures that statutory share from Red Sanders sales reaches the primary conservators via the AP State Biodiversity Board.

Extraction-only model

The marine sector in India has historically operated on a purely extraction-only model. Thousands of tonnes of wild-catch are harvested annually, sustaining the export industry. Yet, the coastal fisherman, who understands the breeding cycles of the Yellowfin Tuna or the migration of the Tiger Prawn sees none of the surplus generated by genetic value of these species as the ABS formula remains an absentee in the marine aqua sector.

While forest dwellers are legally entitled to compensation for a single medicinal leaf, a coastal fisher receives nothing for high-value genetic resources harvested from their traditional waters. This is a fundamental inequity that the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Act, 2023, and Revised ABS Regulations, 2025 aim to correct. The Biological Diversity (BD) Act 2023 takes cognisance in recognising the ocean as a strategic national asset and not an unregulated commodity.

In 2026, the international seafood trade is no longer judged solely on price as the EU and the US have moved aggressively towards ethical audits and sustainability standards as trade barriers. By operationalising a functional ABS system, we aren’t troubling exporters; we are providing them with a compliance certification. India’s domestic ABS framework complements the BBNJ (High Seas) Treaty global vision and COP16 Cali Fund standards for Benefit Sharing of Marine Genetic Resources (MGR). This proves that Indian seafood is harvested in compliance with international mandates, helping our exporters to access premium markets.

Our oceans hold specific genetic blueprints. The operative framework for the marine aqua economy is now based on Digital Sequence Information (DSI) protocol which is the genetic blueprints of deep-sea bacteria and micro-algae.

Whether it is deep-sea bacteria for plastic degradation or rare micro-algae for pharmaceuticals, the Blue Economy’s value is shifting towards DSI. When a multinational pharmaceutical firm develops a patent based on a sequence derived from Indian marine life, the royalty should flow back to our coastal communities. The DSI framework under the 2023 Act will be the primary mechanism, and compliance here protects exporters from being penalised by international ‘Cali Fund’ audits. ABS ensures that the shift from physical harvesting to lab-based synthesis does not bypass traditional fishermen. Without a nationwide ABS rollout, we are essentially leaving our genetic intellectual property unprotected. ABS serves to reconcile the jurisdictional void between physical offshore extraction and onshore genetic synthesis.

India’s shift towards marine ABS is not isolated but an alignment with global precedents set by Australia and Norway with ‘Two-Permit approach’ and ‘2009 Marine Bioprospecting Strategy’ respectively.

The Kerala State Biodiversity Board (SBB) took the lead in January 2026 with a workshop on marine ABS levies working out with west coast States to standardise conditions. The future roadmap should include integrating SBB’s data through the SWIFT mechanism, linking directly with MPEDA (Marine Products Export Development Authority) and the Customs’ Icegate system. This ensures that ABS compliance is not a manual bottleneck but a digital, seamless part of the export workflow. To ensure practical application, the AP SBB intends to work in close coordination with the National Biodiversity Authority’s (NBA’s) Expert Committee on Aquatic Genetic Resources.

The eastern corridor

The potential is proven in the eastern corridor. Last fiscal year, India’s seafood exports reached a historic ₹62,408 crore, with Andhra Pradesh contributing over 60 per cent.

The 2023 BD Act allows the NBA to remove a species from the NTC (Normally Traded Commodities) list to ensure it is subject to ABS. By focusing on large industrial processors with annual turnovers exceeding ₹5 crore, with a focus on premium wild-caught species, we can generate significant revenue for coastal BMCs. If even 10 per cent of this high-value catch moves into an ABS model, the resulting funds could generate critical revenue for basic infrastructure helping small scale fishermen.

There may be concerns that ABS acts as a new cess or a burden on an industry already dealing with thin margins. To give clarity, it’s a statutory levy for the sake of profit-sharing of an economic surplus. The small-scale and individual traditional fishermen are entirely excluded from ABS. The financial responsibility falls solely on the large export houses and industrial processors. Inland fishing and shrimp cultivation (like Vannamei) are not subject to ABS levies, because it falls under Section 40 of NTC under the 2023 Act and is treated as cultivated/farmed rather than wild biological resources, ensuring aquaculture dominance remains unchallenged.

The AP State Biodiversity Board is planning to initiate a State-specific committee comprising marine biologists, aqua farmers, business houses and regulators, to ensure that every rupee collected is tracked and returned to the specific coastal community it came from. .

The biological resources within our maritime zones, stretching from complex cephalopods to the high growth seaweed industry, are not just commodities; but a strategic national resource. By operationalising the 2023 BD Act, the framework creates a mechanism for industrial profit-sharing ensuring that the equity from marine exports flows directly to the BMCs.

The writer is Chairman, Andhra Pradesh Bio-Diversity Board

Published on April 24, 2026