At the 9th Regular Session of FAO`s Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA), held on 14-18 October 2002 at FAO Headquarters, Rome, the Commission considered a report on "The status of the draft Code of Conduct on Biotechnology as it relates to genetic resources for food and agriculture: report on surveys of FAO Members and stakeholders". The report presents the result of surveys conducted in 2000, among FAO Members and a wide range of relevant stakeholders throughout the world, inviting them to provide comments or advice on the existing preliminary draft Code of Conduct on Biotechnology (presented in 1993). See document 9/02/18 at http://www.fao.org/ag/cgrfa/docs9.htm (available in Arabic, Chinese, English, Spanish and French). Background Study Paper 17 was also prepared for the CGRFA, entitled "Recent developments related to biotechnology that are relevant to the analysis of the survey on the Code of Conduct" (ftp://ext-ftp.fao.org/ag/cgrfa/BSP/bsp17e.pdf - 390 KB). The paper provides some perspectives on a selection of recent advances and relates them to the draft Code of Conduct on Biotechnology. For more information, contact [email protected] .

14/11/2002