Press Conference on Protocol to Convention on Biological Diversity

 

on Access, Benefit Sharing of Genetic Resources

 

After nearly 20 years of negotiations, 193 Governments from around the world adopted an “historic” protocol to fairly share the planet’s genetic resources, and a 10-year plan to protect its rapidly disappearing biodiversity — developments that set a positive tone for upcoming negotiations in Cancun, Mexico, to reach a new global climate accord, Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity Secretariat, told journalists at a Headquarters press conference today.

Mr. Djoghlaf, yesterday in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial), presented the new Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from Their Utilization.  (Press Release GA/EF/3293)  He explained that it had been adopted at the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, held from 18 to 29 October in Nagoya, Japan.  The instrument outlines legally binding international rules for sharing benefits from resources used in food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and other products. “It’s a major breakthrough,” he said, “and among the most important legal instruments for the environmental movement.”

The Protocol’s adoption would mean, for example, that companies gaining access to genetic resources in developing countries would share the benefits arising from their use with the owners of those resources: indigenous peoples, local communities and Governments, he said.  The Strategic Plan of the Convention, also adopted by the meeting, includes various targets organized under five strategic goals that address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss.  Parties agreed to translate that overarching framework into national biodiversity strategies and action plans within two years, coinciding with the deadline to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

“The state of biodiversity will be determined by what we do in the next one to two decades,” he said.  “The fate of the planet will depend on the failure or success of the plan.”  A strategy for mobilizing resources, notably through a green development mechanism, would be elaborated at the next Conference of the Parties meeting, slated for October 2012 in India.

With that in mind, the Japanese Prime Minister had announced at the October meeting that $2 billion would be provided over three years to implement the Nagoya outcome, through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Mr. Djoghlaf said.  The Government also had pledged ¥1 billion to help African countries revise their strategies.  The United States, which was not a party to the Convention, had attended the meeting as an observer, marking the first such “ownership” of a protocol by that country since its 2001 signing of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, he added.

Fielding a question about the definition of “protection” for water areas, Mr. Djoghlaf said waters were designated as protected areas under national jurisdiction.  The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) also used very strict definitions.  The extension of protection to marine and coastal ecosystems was among the most important challenges.  Protection led to increased fish stocks and incomes for fishermen.

Asked how the strategic plan could succeed without the involvement of the United States, he said that country, in principle, aligned itself with the protocol’s provisions without being part of the Convention.  The United States had a tremendous moral responsibility to help its neighbours, Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador among them, to protect biodiversity.

Indeed, the time had come for the United States to join the Convention, he said, recalling that the idea for such a treaty had been initiated in 1977 by former United States President Ronald Reagan.  “We believe we are a child of the United States and our parent has abandoned us,” he said.  “We‘ve been adopted by 193 other parents and we want our real parent to come back.”

Asked to provide regional overview of marine protection in the Arab world, he said several countries in that region were undergoing major economic expansion, amid huge oil incomes and massive urbanization.  Those developments should be in harmony with sustainable development.  Among the most important obstacles to protecting biodiversity was the ignorance of leaders.  Engaging the public and especially youth about nature was important.

To make that point, he said children in the region had seen apples on the store shelves, but never hanging from a tree.  They needed to be educated to understand how to engage with nature.  With that in mind, the “Green Wave” campaign had been launched, in partnership with the National Geographic Society.  He was also pleased that Saudi Arabia had taken on board outreach material.  On a related point, he cited the owners of the Patagonia and North Face companies who were buying land in the Patagonia region and transforming it into a protected area.  The philanthropic movement had not been engaged as it should.

To a question on how the Nagoya meeting might influence upcoming negotiations in Cancun for a new climate treaty, he said the media had considered the Nagoya meeting a major breakthrough in reconciling the international community with the United Nations and other multilateral organizations.  In Nagoya, the United Nations had shown itself to be an irreplaceable and unique mechanism to foster cooperation on strategic issues that had a massive impact on the world’s populations.  He was sure the atmosphere and friendship established in Japan would positively impact the meeting in Cancun.

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For information media • not an official record