Minister of State for Environment and Forests Mr Jairam Ramesh has said that India is going to the Nagoya Biodiversity negotiations in October this year from a position of strength. <br/><br/>He called for greater convergence between what is being done in the area of Climate Change negotiations and Biodiversity negotiations. He was addressing the valedictory session of the International Conference on Biodiversity held by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai this evening.<br/><br/>The Minister said that India is going to negotiate a protocol on access and benefit sharing under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity . Mr Ramesh said that as a recognition of India’s leadership role in biodiversity conservation, the 11th Conference of Parties(COP) under the UN Convention on Biodiversity will be held in New Delhi in October 2012.<br/><br/>To protect our bioresources, Mr Ramesh said India’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL)will be of help to patent examiners in the US and in Europe and will help check biopiracy.<br/><br/>Commending the Chennai Declaration which calls for converting biodiversity hotspots into biodiversity ‘happy spots’, the Minister said the ideas in the declaration will be taken forward. The Minister also announced that a National Bureau of Forest and Plant Genetics will be set up in Dehradun to protect our forest resources and an initial amount of 20 crore rupees has been sanctioned.<br/><br/>Later, speaking to news persons Mr Ramesh said that the moratorium on Bt brinjal will remain till there is a political,scientific and societal consensus on the issue.<br/><br/>On the dwindling tiger population, the Minister said that comprehensive amendments to the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 will be introduced in this session of Parliament to make punishment stricter.