Capacity Building

Capacity Building Programmes for Frontline Staffs of Forest Department  
The Board has been conducting awareness, capacity building and training programmes for all stakeholders of the state with an objective to strengthen the skill and capacity towards the implementation of the Biological Diversity Act 2002 and related Rules, Guidelines, Notifications, etc. The objectives of these programmes were to create general awareness and knowledge on biological diversity of Odisha, Biological Diversity Act 2002 & Rules 2004, Odisha Biological Diversity Rules 2012 and related rules and guidelines. The module also included basic knowledge building activities like identification and classification of floral and faunal diversity including both lower and higher groups, threatened & endemic plants, animals and other biological resources of Odisha along with their use, protection, conservation perspectives, etc.The TSGs/LFs, Government and Non-Government organisations facilitate such meetings as participants and resource persons. 
The Board has organised 41 programmes organised till March 2020 in Odisha covering  almost all Forest Divisions (including territorial and wildlife division). Divisional Forest Officers, Assistant Conservator of Forests, Range Officers, Foresters, and Forest guards have participated in these programmes. A training module has been developed by the Board for this purpose which included classroom teaching including display of a short documentary movie on Biodiversity Conservation and related issues followed by field demonstration/on spot identification of flora and fauna in a nearby biodiversity rich area of that particular Division. In this way, nearly 1200 frontline staffs of the Forest Department have been sensitized till March 2020.

Capacity building of members of Biodiversity Management Committees
BMCs are the grassroots level statutory bodies of the three tier system in Biological Diversity Act and it is very much essential to aware, encourage and build the capacity of the BMC members for smooth implementation of the Biological Diversity Act. The Board has made constant effort to empower the BMCs in biodiversity conservation. In this direction, the Board has conducted 28 capacity building programmes for the members of Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) of the state till March 2020. Through this process, around 1500 members from more than 300 Biodiversity Management Committees have been sensitized on different aspects of biological diversity of Odisha and the Biological Diversity Act 2002. 
The Board has also developed a training module for these capacity building programmes in which the members of BMCs were sensitized on their roles and responsibilities, preparation and maintenance of PBRs, levying charges on bioresources for commercial use, granting approval for accessing bioresources, guidelines on access and benefit sharing and other activities related to conservation of biodiversity. In addition to this modular training, the BMC members were also trained to identify floral, faunal and wild relatives of crop plants of Odisha. Various Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials like leaflets, books and booklets developed by the Board have been distributed among the BMC members to enrich their knowledge on above aspects. 

OTHER ACTIVITIES

• 1) Biodiversity Management Committees (BMC) & Peoples' Biodiversity Registers (PBR)
• 2) Research Projects
• 3) Awareness Activities and Workshops & Conference
• 4) Biodiversity Heritage Sites (BHSs)
• 5) Implementation of UNEP-GEF-MoEF-ABS Project
• 6) Biodiversity Resource Centre
• 7) Access and Benefit Sharing Provisions (ABS)