21st July 2016 A workshop on building legal frameworks to implement the Nagoya Protocol is currently being held in Bali Indonesia, from the 18th until the 22nd of July 2016. The workshop is designed to build and enhance the capacity of lawyers and policy officers actively involved in designing and implementing domestic frameworks or advising on national processes to implement the Nagoya Protocol. More than 30 lawyers and policy officers from 18 different countries are convened in Bali for the meeting.
Ms. Ofa Kaisamy from MEIDECC was awarded with a fellowship from the International Development Law Organisation to attend this meeting, following that the application was open, in its nature.
The workshop was made possible through joint collaborations between the International Development Law Organisation (IDLO) and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD), with funding assistance from the Japan Biodiversity Fund. The workshop covers key themes and presents the latest knowledge available regarding the establishment of domestic Access Benefit Sharing (ABS) legislative, administrative and policy measures. At the end of the workshop it is anticipated that participants will be able to provide advice on actions and approaches that moves the national process to build legislative and regulatory frameworks to support the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol.
The Nagoya Protocol is a supplementary agreement of the Cartagena Protocol under the Convention on Biological Diversity [CBD], one of the limbs of the UNFCCC [‘Framework Convention’]. The Nagoya Protocol calls for the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the utilization of genetic resources between those who use them and those that provide them. It aims to promote research and innovation on genetic resources while building incentives for their conservation and sustainable use for the benefit of development and human well-being.
Following the entry into force of the Nagoya Protocol in October 2014, many countries are now actively engaged in making the Protocol operational. Tonga is in the process of ratifying the Nagoya Protocol with anticipation that it will be no later than this year (2016). The current national legal framework that regulates Generic Resources in Tonga is the Biosafety Act 2009. This Act incorporated the terms and conditions of the Cartegena Protocol (a Protocol on trans boundary movement of genetic resources) of which Tonga is a party to.
‘An early challenge in the Protocol’s implementation in Tonga, is building the necessary capacity to enable the country to establish new or amend existing domestic Access Benefit Sharing (ABS) legislative, administrative and policy measures’, ‘Tonga will need to define its own approach tailored to its own needs and priorities’, Miss Kaisamy stated during her country presentation.
The meeting will conclude later this week, Friday 22nd July.
Ends.
Issued by the: Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications