The workshop consisted of the following elements of work:

Report back from Lima

The Secretariat of the CBD was invited to provide an overview on the key findings and recommendations of the Lima meeting. The African representatives in the Expert Group then presented their specific perspectives. A first discussion highlighted general points of agreement and concern.

The “reality check”

The “reality check” provided the opportunity to analyse what difference the experts’ recommendation would have made in real African bioprospecting cases, such as

• the teff case – an agricultural food crop – from Ethiopia,
• the hoodia case – on one hand a classical bio-prospecting case on the other a case closely linked to biotrade issues – from Southern Africa, and
• the case of the alkaliphilic bacteria – used to produce enzymes – from the soda lakes of Kenya.

The selected cases were presented to the participants, which in turn were tasked to analyse the cases in light of the Expert Group’s findings.

Contributions to an African position

Building on the results of the “reality check” participants developed recommendations and key elements for an African position on the report of the Experts Group, which could contribute to an eventual submission of the African Group on the “International Certificate of Origin/Source/Legal Provenance” in accordance with COP decision VIII/4 C5.