UN Biodiversity Talks Resume, Last Chance For Agreement Before October Deadline

The last chance to complete discussions and reach an agreement on a draft protocol text on access and benefit-sharing is given to member parties of the UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) next week. The protocol is intended to provide a new international tool for governments against piracy of genetic resources.

From 10-16 July, the resumed ninth meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing will take place in Montreal, Canada, providing members “an exceptional opportunity” to finalising the protocol drafted at the previous meeting in Cali, Colombia, according to a preparatory note circulated to participants, meeting co-chairs Fernando Casas of Colombia and Timothy Hodges of Canada.

The co-chairs said the negotiations are aimed at finalising a protocol text “in time for its possible adoption at the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties,” in Nagoya, Japan from 18-29 October. The Conference of the Parties is the governing body of the CBD and typically meets every two years.

To access the meeting documents, click here.

The March meeting in Cali was meant to be the final gathering of the CBD Working Group on access and benefit-sharing but members were unable to reach an agreement to conclude the meeting, which was adjourned and scheduled to be reconvened this week (IPW, Biodiversity/Genetic Resources/Biotech, 6 April 2010). “The working group will in effect pick up where it left off in Cali,” it said.

Informal consultations with parties, regions and groups, indigenous and local communities, and other stakeholders were held in recent weeks, according to the preparatory “scenario” note.

In Montreal, finalisation of the negotiation of the revised draft protocol tabled by the co-chairs, “will be achieved through isolating and resolving outstanding issues and identifying and filling any gaps, while ensuring the integrity and balance of the text overall,” the co-chairs said.

In the 16 June preparatory scenario note, the co-chairs said they would “shortly” produce a “Further Revised Co-Chairs’ Guidance Note, which will take a package approach and focus on the key outstanding issues.” This document does not appear to be available on the meeting website.

At the Cali meeting, the major outstanding issues appeared to be compliance measures attached to the international regime that would come out of the Conference of the Parties in October, and the way to handle products derived from genetic resources.

In the past, most developed countries have been said to be reluctant to have strong compliance obligations and have compulsory disclosure requirements in patent applications.