30/06/2011

More than 100 policy makers and seniors officials attending the FAO conference this week were briefed today by the Secretaries of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and the Convention on Biological Diversity during a event who remarked the ongoing collaboration on capacity building for the coherent implementation of the International Treaty and the Nagoya Protocol.

The Executive Secretary of the CBD Ahmed Djoghlaf and the Secretary of the International Treaty Shakeel Bhatti presented and explained to participants a rich programme of joint capacity building events and activities for 2011 and early 2012.

Both secretaries referred to the two-day capacity-building workshop organized in Montreal at the beginning of June. The event, which gathered 200 participants from around the world, was the first of its kind and helped governments to identify priorities and needs for capacity-building in the implementation of their obligations under the Nagoya Protocol.

“Both the International Treaty and the Nagoya Protocol are the only legally binding international instruments on access and benefit sharing and it is imperative that they are implemented in a coherent and harmonious manner”, said Mr Djoghlaf.

“We are aware of the enormous challenges that countries will have to face to make of the letter of these instruments a reality on the ground and we are activating and pooling as much resources as possible to support technical officers and policy makers and thus making easier for them this important task”, explained Mr Bhatti.

Some of the major outputs of the first capacity-building workshop were shared with the First meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Nagoya Protocol (ICNP-1) which set up the basis for the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol on Genetic Resources. The Protocol has been already signed by 36 countries and the European Union and will be open for signature until 1 February 2012. T

he Nagoya Protocol is an international agreement which aims at sharing the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources in a fair and equitable way, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies. It was adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity at its tenth meeting on 29 October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan.

The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources is one of the three objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity and is a common objective with the International Treaty which focuses on the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.