Biodiversity Convention: Decisions on new avatar of benefit sharing on the anvil next month

  • July 3, 2024
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN Topics
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Biodiversity Convention: Decisions on new avatar of benefit sharing on the anvil next month

Sub: Environment

Sec: Int Conventions

Context: In August 2024, delegates will discuss the multilateral fund for sharing benefits from the use of digital sequence information, following the publication of the United Nations’ negotiation proposals.

Details:

  • The requirement to share benefits is one of the three main tenets of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The convention makes no recommendation on what should be done if only genetic material is used. CBD members have attempted to solve this conundrum for the better part of a decade.
  • Plant, animal and microbe genetic material are all examples of digital sequence information (DSI). There is currently no internationally agreed-upon definition of DSI and its scope may include other dematerialised genetic resources, such as protein sequence data.
  • The decision made by the DSI intergovernmental negotiating group would also guide discussion of similar multilateral funds under consideration by the Food and Agriculture Organization under its International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, as well as the World Health Organization’s Pandemic Treaty.
  • At the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15), held in December 2022, the parties pledged a new multilateral mechanism in which industry could contribute to a global fund that would be used to support nature conservation and sustainable use, including related activities of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, as well as building capacity worldwide to generate and use
  • According to the UN documents released July 1, 2024, even a small percentage of revenue from products such as drugs, cosmetics and agricultural biotechnology would be worth billions of dollars.

Digital Sequence Information (DSI) on Genetic Resources-

  • Digital sequence information (DSI) is a term used in the context of certain international policy fora, particularly the Convention on Biological Diversity, to refer to data derived from genetic resources.
  • DSI refers to data from DNA or RNA that can be stored digitally.
  • The term is generally agreed to include nucleic acid sequence data and may be construed to include other data types derived from or linked to genetic resources, including, for example, protein sequence data.
  • The exact scope of this term is an aspect of ongoing policy discussions.
  • DSI is crucial to research in a wide range of contexts, including public health, medicine, biodiversity, plant and animal breeding, and evolution research.
  • The Nagoya Protocol, a component of the Convention on Biological Diversity, establishes a right for countries to regulate, and to share in benefits derived from, their nation’s genetic resources by arranging Access and Benefit Sharing Agreements with users.

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

  • The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), a legally binding treaty to conserve biodiversity has been in force since 1993. It has 3 main objectives:
    • The conservation of biological diversity.
    • The sustainable use of the components of biological diversity.
    • The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.
  • Nearly all countries have ratified it (notably, the US has signed but not ratified).
  • The CBD Secretariat is based in Montreal, Canada and it operates under the United Nations Environment Programme.
  • The Parties (Countries) under Convention of Biodiversity (CBD), meet at regular intervals and these meetings are called Conference of Parties (COP).
  • In 2000, a supplementary agreement to the Convention known as the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety was adopted. It came into force on 11th September 2003.
    • The Protocol seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology.
  • The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS) was adopted in 2010 in Nagoya, Japan at COP10. It entered into force on 12th October 2014.
    • It not only applies to genetic resources that are covered by the CBD, and to the benefits arising from their utilization but also covers traditional knowledge (TK) associated with genetic resources that are covered by the CBD and the benefits arising from its utilization.
  • Along with the Nagoya Protocol on Genetic Resources, the COP-10 also adopted a ten-year framework for action by all countries to save biodiversity.
  • Officially known as “Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020”, it provided a set of 20 ambitious yet achievable targets collectively known as the Aichi Targets for biodiversity.
  • India enacted Biological Diversity Act in 2002 for giving effect to the provisions of the CBD.

Global Environment Facility

  • It is an independently operating financial organization
  • GEF is multilateral financial mechanism that provides grants to developing countries for projects that benefit global environment and promote sustainable livelihoods in local communities.
  • It was setup as a fund under World Bank in 1991
  • In 1992, at the Rio Earth Summit, the GEF was restructured and moved out of the World Bank system to become a permanent, separate institution.
  • Since 1994, however, the World Bank has served as the Trustee of the GEF Trust Fund and provided administrative services.
  • It is based in Washington DC, United States.
  • It addresses six designated focal areas:
    • biodiversity,
    • climate change,
    • international waters,
    • ozone depletion,
    • land degradation and
    • Persistent Organic Pollutants.
  • The program supports an active portfolio of over 200 investments globally.
  • GEF serves as financial mechanism for :
    • Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
    • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
    • UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
    • Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
    • Minamata Convention on Mercury
  • India is both donor and recipient of GEF.
Biodiversity Convention: Decisions on new avatar of benefit sharing on the anvil next month Environment