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The Like Minded Megadiverse Countries (LMMC), rich in biological diversity and associated traditional knowledge, have agreed to join efforts as a Group for effectively negotiating the development of an international regime on access and benefit sharing (ABS), including legally binding instruments in the forthcoming meetings of the Ad-hoc Open ended Working Group under the aegis of Convention on Biological Diversity, so as to safeguard the interests of LMMC countries and peoples.
The New Delhi Ministerial Declaration of Like Minded Megadiverse Countries on Access and Benefit Sharing, issued here today, at the end of five-day meet of the Megadiverse countries, also stated that the proposed international regime on access and benefit sharing (ABS) should include “mandatory disclosure of the country of origin of biological material and associated traditional knowledge in the IPR (Intellectual Property Right) application, along with an undertaking that the prevalent laws and practices of the country of origin have been respected and mandatory specific consequences in the event of failure to disclose the country of origin in the IPR application”.
The Megadiverse countries have also agreed to ensure that the proposed ABS includes prior informed consent of the country of origin and mutually agreed upon terms between the country of origin and user country.
The Declaration states that the LMMC have agreed to jointly further work towards creating the Megadiverse Cooperation Fund for supporting projects in member countries that meet the objectives of the Group.
Recognizing the urgent need to develop human resources, capabilities, and legal and public policy to enable countries rich in biodiversity to take an active part in the new economy associated with the use of biological diversity and biotechnology, seventeen countries rich in biological diversity and associated traditional knowledge have formed a group known as the Like Minded Megadiverse Countries (LMMCs).
These countries are Bolivia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, and Venezuela. The LMMC Group, which holds nearly 60-70% of all biodiversity, is now well recognized as an important negotiating block in the UN and other international fora.
The five-day meet of LMMCs, which was inaugurated here on 17th January 2005, discussed issues relating to access to genetic resources and associated knowledge, intellectual property rights (IPRs) in relation to biological resources, and traditional knowledge.
The meeting, hosted by India in its capacity as the President of the Group, helped in evolving a common position of the LMMCs for developing an international regime on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) and resulted in finalization and adoption of the New Delhi Ministerial Declaration of Like Minded Megadiverse Countries on Access and Benefit Sharing.
While CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) envisages that access to genetic resources and realization of benefits is subject to national legislation through formalization of prior informed consent (PIC) and mutually agreed terms (MAT), India has been emphasizing that such national action alone is not sufficient to ensure realization of benefits to the country of origin or provider country. This is particularly so in cases where genetic material sourced from one country is utilized in another country for developing products and processes on which patent protection is obtained. The onus of benefit sharing must also be shared by the user country to create an enabling environment and confidence through legislative measures so as to ensure compliance of PIC stipulations and equitable sharing of benefits as visualized in the Convention.
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