Recommendations
1. Need for ABS-Regulations
Problem
The CBD gave countries sovereignty over their biological resources. Several countries in Africa are yet to adopt comprehensive legislation governing ABS. Lack of legislation has led to unregulated access to biological/genetic resources without obligations for benefit-sharing, PIC or MTA. There are often only weak or even no sanctions in ABS regimes at national and international levels.
Recommendations
- African countries should establish and strengthen national legislation on ABS on biological/genetic resources and implement relevant national legislation.
- CBD Article 20 (Financial Resources) and Article 21 (Financial Mechanism [GEF]) provides for facilitating support by CBD of such activities. Parties must take the initiative to access this funding window.
- Document ABS expertise in the region for capacity-building and the exchange of relevant skills.
- For the effective national level implementation of ABS regulations countries need to consider how these interact with other obligations under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), the Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) under the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the relevant agreements under the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), etc.
2. Cross Border Resources
Problem
Numerous biological/genetic resources are distributed in or shared by several countries, i.e. devil’s claw in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa; Basmati rice in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, Red Maasai Sheep in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. These shared cross-border resources pose ABS problems for the range states, regarding sovereign rights and ownership, diversity of local names and traditional uses, access, bioprospecting, patenting, benefit-sharing, and marketing. Bioprospectors may take advantage of this situation through bilateral negotiations and agreements.
Recommendations
- With the support and involvement of regional and sub-regional organizations range states should develop harmonized ABS regulations to enhance cross-boarder cooperation and common goals for the use of genetic resources including their conservation, sustainable use and related benefit-sharing opportunities.
- Research and development centres of the range states should study and establish the levels of variation within and between species, composition of species or varieties/ breeds, and the extent of distribution of the cross-border resources.
- National and local governments as well as ABS National Focal Points should involve NGOs to promote the implementation of regional ABS regulations for cross-border resources.
3. Definitions
Problem
The CBD provides definitions for ”biological resources”, “genetic resources”, and “genetic material”. But these definitions are a result of negotiated compromises and are not neces-sarily very clear or precise. As countries try to create and implement national ABS systems, they grapple with the scope of the system, as they need to define and elaborate what the system includes.
Recommendations
- At the international level the ABS Working Group needs to continue its work on the agenda item ”use of terms”
- At the national level countries need to clarify the scope of the ABS system: Where does ABS start and end? What is the relationship between Farmers’ Rights, Plant Breeders’ Rights community rights, intellectual property rights, patents, etc.
4. Stakeholder Participation and Benefit-Sharing
Problem
Indigenous and local communities are custodians of many biological/genetic resources and holders of the associated indigenous/traditional knowledge. However, ownership and use rights are often not clearly defined or even recognized by national governments.
Furthermore, indigenous and local communities are often very weak organisational wise in trying to raise awareness and empowerment on CBD and ABS issues.
Recommendations
- Ensure recognition and participation of relevant indigenous and local communities at all stages of ABS negotiations: Ensure ownership and/or use rights on biological/genetic resources and traditional knowledge, and then consider them primary beneficiaries. Means of implementation depend on national legislation on property rights of Govern-ment, local communities and individuals.
- Build capacities of indigenous and local communities on governance and the sustainable use of biological and genetic resources and improve their knowledge about ABS mecha-nisms and negotiations skills.
- Ensure non-monetary and monetary benefits derived from ABS agreements contribute to poverty alleviation among relevant indigenous and local communities.
- Governments must provide clear guidelines through appropriate legislation to ensure the development of fair and equitable ABS agreements including mechanisms to speed-up up-front payments, milestone payments, conditional licensing etc.
- Fair and equitable guidelines must address environmental, health, cultural, social and economic issues on the transfer and commercialisation of biological and genetic re-sources as well as traditional knowledge.
5. Transparency and Accountability including Codes of Conduct / Ethics
Problem
Many developing countries have enacted legislation or made regulations and policies to regulate ABS. In some countries, ABS regulatory frameworks are effective and respected by both nationals and foreigners. However, some foreign institutions and companies from developed countries disregard these national regulations that govern access to biological/genetic resources and/or associated indigenous/traditional knowledge. Such institutions and companies get access by directly using their economic might, while in some cases bioprospecting/biopiracy occurs under bilateral agreements or projects meant to address socio-economic empowerment in rural areas.
For functioning regulations and effective participation, all stakeholders need to be able to see how ABS decisions are made and need to be informed about the decisions that have been made.
Recommendations
- Governments need to act in a transparent and accountable manner while creating, im-plementing and administering ABS systems/frameworks.
- There must be full disclosure, transparency and accountability in ABS undertakings at the local level by government institutions and users/scientists.
- Countries should identify users of biological/genetic resources within their jurisdiction and facilitate and encourage them to develop or abide in a Code of Conduct/Ethics such as the Micro-Organisms Sustainable Use and Access Regulation International Code of Conduct, FAO's International Code of Conduct for Plant Germplasm Collecting and Transfer, or the Principles on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit-Sharing for Participating Institutions (for botanical gardens and herbaria)."
- CBD Working Groups on ABS and Article (8j) should call on the private sector and scientific users of biological/genetic resources to develop and adopt institutional codes of conduct/ethics as well as accountability and monitoring mechanisms.
6. Traditional Knowledge and Science
Problem
In many countries interaction between the government and local communities is minimal. Often there is no appreciation of the fact that local communities are resource owners and managers as well as owners of basic environmental knowledge.
Modern science does not pay sufficient respect to indigenous and traditional knowledge, resulting in a widening gap of interaction and information.
Recommendations
- Develop mechanisms that link scientific work to local people’s livelihoods.
- Scientific programmes should use indigenous knowledge as basic primary science and be transformed to knowledge management programmes, including both science and local and indigenous knowledge. Donor funded programmes supporting biodiversity related research should acknowledge this.
- Develop strategies to communicate scientific work, and results and recommendations to local communities.
7. Capacity-building Needs
Problem
The situation in many countries can be described as follows: considerable lack of under-standing of relevant issues dealt with by the CBD, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO); poor understanding of the critical issues in relation to ABS and biosafety; inadequate capacities of institutional frameworks relevant for the regulation of ABS; lack of adequate skills on the valuation of biologi-cal/genetic resources; lack of general awareness on ABS issues.
Despite the agreed CBD Action Plan on Capacity-building for ABS (COP decision VII/19), real efforts for capacity-building are by far not sufficient.
Recommendations
- Capacity-building is needed at institutional and human resource level. Most neglected are presently local based stakeholder groups, so they should get priority.
- More emphasis needs to be given to regional capacity-building approaches. Building networks and trust by regional workshops (as the one in Addis) could be an effective element of such capacity-building.
- Develop and initiate awareness and capacity-building programmes for relevant issues in the context of ABS, biosafety, intellectual property rights, resource valuation, ground truthing, etc.
- Create functioning institutional frameworks for the regulation of ABS.
- Develop user-friendly information packs on ABS related issues.
8. Cooperation in Capacity-Building
Problem
As scientific analysis reveal most of the few capacity-building efforts for ABS on the African continent address the level of national policy and regulation. As often, local people are at the end of the row and where their capacity-building needs have been taken into consideration this happens usually in a top down approach.
Recommendations
- There is need for cooperation in capacity-building at all levels in order to enhance informed decision making, transparent agreements, acceptance and open participation. For instance running and future biodiversity programmes – including protected area conservation, eco-tourism, reforestation, agroforestry, etc. – at province, district and community level should contain ABS awareness or implementation elements involving all stakeholders concerned.
- Considering firstly the own potential of Africa itself, there is a need for interactive North-South and South-South approaches in capacity-building. A starting point could be a regional knowledge network or mentoring system of local communities to exchange first hand ABS practices and regulation approaches. Such a network could occasionally also benefit from experiences gained by legislators and scientists of the Eastern and Southern African region.
- New curricula for training institutions / civil society on current issues and new language / terminology evolution on ABS have to be developed.
9. General Information and Resource Accounting Gaps
Problem
In Africa national and regional information on the availability, distribution and abundance of biological/genetic resources is scattered and with considerable gaps. Little information is available on the real custodians of biological/genetic resources. Such gaps entail serious consequences for sustainable use and management of biological and genetic resources. ABS policy development is therefore in many cases not supported by a profound knowl-edge of the resource status.
Biological and genetic resources leave source countries through various channels, which include individual involvement in research undertakings as a way of biopiracy.
Often local communities are not sufficiently aware of the biological and genetic resources they have. This is due to cultural differences and biased interest based on specific attachment to certain resources. Illiteracy levels are high, which is a set back on any awareness raising and capacity-building on ABS. Furthermore, the possibilities to increase public awareness about the status of biodiversity using modern communication tools and mechanisms is limited among all classes of people.
Recommendations
- Need for country-to-country resource inventory audit and evaluation through gradual resource inventory/monitoring exercises using modern methods such as GIS, digitised maps and gene mapping to assess rates of use, enhance accountability and safeguard against biopiracy with a known resource baseline.
- Unify fragmented databases at national/regional level to provide for a strong monitoring instrument of biological and genetic resources.
- Document indigenous/traditional knowledge in special local databases without publishing it, thus leaving the knowledge under local/national protection.
- Carry out mass education/awareness on the importance of databases about biological and genetic resources of individual countries to avoid any abuse out of ignorance, to highlight the economic potential and as a tool for decision making of policy makers.
- Ensure that high level administrative and policy levels are aware of the situation at the ground regarding the changes in the status of biological and genetic resources.
- Need for devolution of relevant information to increase awareness at all levels equally and to improve stakeholders’ accountability to help reducing the misappropriation of biological resources.
10. NGOs Role in the Commercialisation of Biological/Genetic Resources
Problem
Local and international NGOs have been helpful in complementing efforts of many devel-oping countries to achieve sustainable development and in the promotion of wise man-agement of the environment. Furthermore, NGOs have been helpful in assisting developing countries negotiators to understand political, technical and scientific aspects underlying critical issues during intergovernmental UN meetings.
However, the positive aspects of NGO assistance is being overshadowed by the growing involvement of some NGOs in the commercialisation of and profit generation based on biological/genetic resources. It has also been sadly observed that activities of such NGOs are killing the ABS approach by promoting biopiracy activities.
Recommendations
- National governments should stop at once the involvement of any NGO in the commer-cialisation of biological/genetic resources.
- National governments should enforce the code of conduct of NGOs regarding ethical action and their involvement in activities that undermine the ABS regimes.
- Capacity-building on ABS should benefit both local, national and international NGOs.
- National governments should involve NGOs in developing and implementing ABS poli-cies, regulations and laws.
11. Civil War Situations
Problem
Civil war situations lead to a total break down of law & order. High poverty levels are lead-ing to resource over-exploitation and additionally bad governance and some international institutions exploit local people of their biological resources. Compliance to CBD principles is difficult due to a number of pressures. Inappropriate livestock restocking after situations of war as well as drought is a major cause of a loss of farm animal diversity.
Recommendations
- Through sub-regional bodies the African Union (AU) needs to help stop civil wars quickly.
- AU and UN need to improve their responses to war situations in Africa and provide post war assistance to implement the CBD and other conventions to help conserve the natu-ral resource base
- AU and UN must ensure the accountability of international organizations that abuse and indiscriminately overexploit natural resources during war situations.
