08.30

Introduction to the day

Brainstorming options for previously defined issues, and exploring possible implications: 

The 4 groups met to discuss the issues highlighted on the previous day 

GROUP 4: IDEAS ON HOW TO ACHIEVE BEST COOPERATION

1)       Non Discrimination

a) 2 agreements: 1) national agreement and 2) international agreement.

If there is an ABS agreement with nationals then the special treatment or concession for nationals should be restricted to national markets. If nationals want to enter into the international market then they have to be treated the same as international users.
International users who enter national markets should be treated the same as national users. 

b) Parties could be a company, institute or person, no differences are made

2) Facilitated Access

i) Access point-

a) definite department/contact person at national level and a standard procedure and institutional infrastructure

b) Permit i) research ii) research for commercialization iii) commercialization

c) Facilitated contact to provider/community by government- competent national authority and quality control

ii) Proactive promotion by country

a) CBD- link to ABS national focal points

b) National mechanism to promote indigenous TK, plants

c) Communication/network/marketing to generate interest

d) Local groups- GTZ, Sippo, Chamber of Commerce, trade shows

3) Trust and Collaboration

i) Project team- national representative, provider and user that develops a framework for frequent meetings, milestone reports

ii) Target: long term sustainable benefits, skills, technology transfer, market skills, workplaces

Project collaboration and benefits

1)       Partnerships

2)       As much as possible in country

3)       Technology transfer

4)       Participation open to local shareholder

5)       Benefit sharing in the whole process

No simple access framework but there may be opening there if we rely on PhD students

GROUP 1: POSSIBLE ROADMAP

1)       PIC and MAT- should be subject to national legislation, there needs to be objects of research, some countries will have MAT without PIC, and other countries both, some countries PIC and MAT at the same time, other countries GAP

2)       Certificates necessary if they facilitate tracking and not onerous, will be issued by NCA, debate whether it was certificate of origin, source or legal provenance

3)       All tied into tracking and checkpoints

4)       Transparency and confidentiality- confidentiality is key

5)       The disclosure happens first at MAT, since much depends on MAT and if MAT is strong then its fine

6)       Disclosure at the level of the patent system, discussed at WIPO and WTO so cannot make recommendations- disclosure at the level of PIC and MAT

7)       Compliance- recourse to law can happen through the contract if there is no contract then other kinds of recourse

8)       A specific tracking system might not be workable everywhere but can happen at the level of MAT, certificate and disclosure- exit checkpoints, entry point of country of destination, marketing authority, IP patent – example given about organic produce and how we track it. Tracking is also done through regular reporting which is based on trust – tracking is exponential, because a resource can be transformed into a million different products, but checkpoints act as funnels- so more focus on checkpoints

GROUP 3: POSSIBLE SCOPE

1)       Focus in uses e.g. modification or copy of genetic material- query- taking extract from biological resource- it is not an intention to capture commodity trade

2)       Scope will not include on going uses of pre-CBD access to resources- query future uses of resources accessed, pre-CBD +the use of those resources in transition

3)       TK- difficult to know to whom to distribute benefits. Examples of possible solutions, TK= difficult to make link between TK and modern approaches

4)       TK should logically be in the IR but is likely to be subject to national legislations due to national differences in treatment of traditional communities

GROUP 2: IDEAS ON IMPLEMENTATION MECHANISMS 

Comprehensive but flexible regime

1) Comprehensive regime includes:

a)       Objectives

b)       Rights and obligations

c)       Definitions

d)       Scope

e)       Compliance

f)         Specific exclusions (pointing to existing treaty systems for the uses/objectives foreseen in those systems e.g. multilateral system, FAO system)

2) Flexibility

a)       Enabling clauses linked to implementation mechanisms e.g. different NCAs addressing different uses, references to community protocols

b)       Flexible language in all sections to allow distinction between activities/sectors+ new science

c)       National implementation of requirements as appropriate to sectors and sizes

 

Where to go from here Finally, participants identified possible next steps after this meeting
What	Who	When
Reporting back to constituencies		-           CGRFA meeting, Oct 09 Rome; meeting before the CGRFA meeting on ABS and AnGR -           Meeting Jakarta (Dec 09- ABS day)
Reciprocal briefings		-           Briefing sessions before Montreal (African Group and business)
Follow up meeting(s) of this type/dialogue	-           Similar group as was here plus some new people	-           Early 2010
	-           Broader audience	-           Before Columbia a day before the meeting
African Group representatives participating at a trade show

 

13.00

Lunch

14.00

End of meeting and departures