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The Minister of State for Environment and Forests Shri Namo Narain Meena has stressed the need for the relevant international agreements in order to prevent illegal access and use of genetic resources and traditional knowledge.
Inaugurating the Experts’ Meeting of the Like Minded Megadiverse Countries (LMMCs) on access to biological resources and sharing of benefits arising out of the use of these resources, here today, Shri Meena said that “sustainable use of biodiversity can only be accomplished by establishing a system of access that requires agreements to preserve genetic resources, measures environmental impacts, provides evidence of prior and informed consent by host governments and local communities and ensures fair and equitable sharing of benefits deriving from genetic resources and traditional knowledge”.
Stating that biodiversity has become a subject of intense trade negotiations, Shri Meena pointed out that the issues such as bio-piracy, bio-prospecting, access and benefit sharing have been catapulted to prominence, adding that “these issues appear to be compounded by the apparent lack of harmonization between the two major international instruments namely Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual property Rights (TRIPs) and the Convention on Biological Diversity”.
In his welcome address, Dr Prodipto Ghosh, Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, pointed out that international community’s approach to biodiversity has changed over the past ten years.
Stating that biological diversity is now considered as an essential part of efforts to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development, Dr Ghosh said that “this change has been in large part due to the process of international consensus building instituted under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its inherent strengths of near universal membership, a comprehensive and science-driven approach, international financial support for national projects and the political involvement of governments”.
In his remarks, Dr Olivier Jalbert, Head of Secretariat of Convention on Biological Diversity, observed that a comprehensive international regime on access and benefit sharing may require one or more instruments - legally or non-legally binding. Such instruments could include examination of the need for and feasibility of an international certificate of origin or legal provenance to address the requirements for the disclosure of the country of origin of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge in intellectual property rights applications to ensure compliance with prior informed consent and mutually agreed terms on which access was granted as well as the protection and recognition of the traditional knowledge of indigenous and local communities to ensure that they obtain fair and equitable compensation of the utilization of their knowledge.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Charles McNeill, Biodiversity Programme, UNDP, said that proper evaluation and exploitation of biological resources has socio-cultural implications for megabiodiverse countries and can help in realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) such as eradication of poverty, provision of health for all and conservation of environment, as set out by the United Nations. Dr Balakrishnan Pisupati, Head, IUCN Regional Biodiversity Programme for Asia, stressed the need for making the wealth of biological resources an engine of growth for developing countries.
The meeting of the the group seventeen countries, known as the Like Minded Megadiverse Countries (LMMC), rich in biological diversity and associated traditional knowledge has been convened to discuss the issues relating to access to genetic resources and associated knowledge, intellectual property rights (IPRs) in relation to biological resources, and traditional knowledge.
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 is being hosted by India in its capacity as the President of the Group. The two-day ministerial level meeting of LMMCs will be inaugurated by Thiru Raja on 20th January 2005.
The meeting, organized in cooperation with IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and UNDP (United nations Development Programme), is being attended by ministers, experts, government officials and various stakeholders. The meeting will help in evolving a common position of the LMMCs for developing an international regime on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) and is expected to result in finalization and adoption of the New Delhi Ministerial Declaration of LMMCs on ABS.
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