CARTEGENA PROTOCOL

CARTEGENA PROTOCOL

Subject : Environment

Context : There is a multilateral template in place for clean bio research — the 1992 UN Convention on Biological Diversity, 1992, and the 2000 Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety

Concept :

• On 29 January 2000, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP5) adopted a supplementary agreement to the Convention known as the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. It came into force on 11 September 2003.
• CBD covers the rapidly expanding field of biotechnology through its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.
• It addresses technology development and transfer, benefit-sharing, and biosafety issues.
• The Biosafety Protocol seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology.
• It creates an advanced informed agreement (AIA) procedure that requires exporters to seek consent from importing countries before the first shipment of LMOs meant to be introduced into the environment (e.g. seeds for planting, fish for release, and microorganisms for bioremediation)
• It establishes an internet-based “Biosafety Clearing-House” to help countries exchange scientific, technical, environmental, and legal information about LMOs.
• The Protocol gives a precautionary approach to the issue of the transfer of LMOs from one country to another.
• The Protocol includes a clause that makes clear the Parties’ intent that the agreement does not alter the rights and obligations of governments under the World Trade Organization (WTO) or other existing international agreements.