USE OF TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND BIOTECHNOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Parallel to its rich agroclimatic diversity, India is equally rich in biodiversity. These biological
resources have provided useful gene pool to humankind since time immemorial. However, a number
of such biological resources have been lost due to over-exploitation on the one hand, and immense
selection and domestication of fewer species on the other.. Thus in the context of the present
demand and future needs, the major global concern is for the conservation and sustainable utilization
of our genetic resources for sustainable growth. The Convention of Biological Diversity was formulated
during the UNCED Earth SUmmit held at Rio de Janerio in Brazil in June 1992 to achieve these
goals. While the technologically rich developed countries lack genetic resources,· most of the developing
countries including India, have not been able to get full benefit from its biological riches due to
lack of sound technologies. It is, therefore, important to strengthen our technologies and rise to
the much desired status of technologically and genetic resources rich nation. It becomes mandatory
to bioprospect, document and conserve the valuable gene pool. It may also involve adequately
compensating the indigenous communities that have conserved the biological resources through
centuries, and have also generated valuable knowledge regarding their use. There is a need for using
traditional knowledge and biotechnological interventions for sustainable utilization of plant genetic
re~ources. This paper highlights an urgent need for systematic programme of bioprospecting of India's
rich biodiversity using molecular and biochemical approaches. Such a systematic study would enable
identification of new genes and molecules that may be useful in agriculture, medicine and other
cognate disciplines.