Objectives
Despite many controversial discussions on the nature, scope and elements of an international regime on access to genetic resources and the sharing of benefits generated from their utilisation it is obvious to all actors that without access to biological or genetic resources no benefits can be generated by the private sector. The importance of these benefits is that they could be shared between the users and providers of such resources for the benefit of biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation.
There is however a great deal of legal uncertainty in the area of ABS due to the lack of adequate legislation and a comprehensive international regime. This has significantly increased the opportunity and transaction costs of both communities and companies when dealing with the commercial aspects of the use of traditional knowledge and genetic resources. This has led to many companies opting out of natural products research and development and many communities refusing to share their traditional knowledge or resources. On the other hand because of the legal lacunae there is an increase in biopiracy and there is little that can be done by communities to combat it.
One of the main reasons for the legislative vacuum is the variance in the interpretation the third objective of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in different national legislations. This is a result of a lack of clear and internationally agreed definitions on a number of key issues- for instance, the use of the terms "biological resource" and "genetic resource" and the far reaching implications of a choice to use one term instead of the other. In this situation of regulatory uncertainty, some international initiatives focussing on biotrade are trying to provide guidance to the relevant stakeholders especially the private sector. These initiatives include:
- The BioTrade Facilitation Programme (BTFP) of the UNCTAD BioTrade Initiative which is elaborating practical guidelines to facilitate the equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of biological resources in BioTrade activities
(www.biotrade.org/BTFP/BS/Benefit-sharing.htm).
PhytoTrade Africa is implementing the BTFP in Southern Africa. For more information see
www.phytotradeafrica.com. - The recently launched International Standard for Sustainable Wild Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (ISSC-MAP) includes criteria relating to ABS and the benefit-sharing requirement of CBD Article 8j on traditional knowledge ( www.floraweb.de/map-pro).
Recognising the key role of the private sector in achieving the third objective of the CBD the present workshop is designed to provide government institutions and other stakeholders an insight into how biological and/or genetic resources get transformed into the ingredients of commercial products. Such an understanding is seen as a prerequisite to draft meaningful and applicable national legislations as well as to negotiate a practicable international regime on ABS- a regime which will facilitate research and product development (R&D) and at the same time ensure benefit-sharing with communities.
With the ultimate aim of the workshop being the facilitation of an exchange between legislators and the private sector, the strategic objectives of the workshop are as follows:
- To explore the role and contribution of the private sector in the ABS and biotrade sector within the framework of public-private-partnerships (PPP) and other intervention areas.
- To identify best practices for ABS and biotrade in Southern Africa, such as different approaches to benefit-sharing, and ways to minimize costs to conform to regulatory ABS requirements.
- To explore the grey areas between ABS and biotrade and thereby contribute to the discussion on the scope of the international regime as well as national legislation.
