Pacific Voyage Team - News from Nagoya, Japan

24 October 2010

* Money in the way of new targets
* 'Black cloud' hangs over Nagoya talks
* Protocol seeks to protect indigenous targets

Money in the way of new targets

“Whether or not we pass some of these tipping points, whether or not coral reefs have a chance of surviving through the next century, will depend on actions taken over the next 10 years or so” – David Cooper

The level of ambition of financial resources and capacity building are among the most difficult issues in negotiating a new Strategic Plan for the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD), a key official revealed yesterday.

David Cooper, the Secretary of COP 10 in Nagoya, said the meeting hopes to adopt the plan next week, if the difficulties can be resolved.

“The developing countries are saying that if we have ambitious targets for reducing biodiversity loss in various ways, then we also need ambitious targets for funding and there isn’t yet a clear agreement on that,” he explained.

“There is also question about the overall mission of whether we should be aiming to halt biodiversity loss by 2010 and what should that contain.”

The meeting, however, is united that the decade is crucial “to determine the future of life on earth.”

“And that’s the 10 years of the strategic plan being discussed here [in Nagoya],” he said.

“Whether or not we pass some of these tipping points, whether or not coral reefs have a chance of surviving through the next century, will depend on actions taken over the next 10 years or so.

“Whether or not we maintain tropical forest and we maintain the services that depend on those forests, and the capacity to produce food in those areas because that depends on the rainfall that comes from those forests, whether we are able to continue to extract a significant amount of food from the oceans, all these things will depend on the actions we take over the next ten years.”

The Strategic plan will have 20 targets.

“Some of those targets address things that are very familiar to the biodiversity and the conservation community,” Mr Cooper hinted.

“For instance, there are targets to establish protected areas, marine areas, terrestrial areas.
Other targets aim to prevent the extinction of known species, food protected areas and there are other targets which take the conservation community and the Environmental ministers outside their comfort zones into addressing drivers of biodiversity loss, things like over fishing, land use loss, pollution and so on.”

Mr Cooper said it was important to take actions which address the causes biodiversity loss.
“That means engaging sectors such as agriculture, fishery, forestry, energy (biofuel),” he said. “Ultimately, we will have the engage the whole of the society.”

Another key part of the plan is integrating biodiversity in national accounts at national level.

“We need to integrate the economic benefits of biodiversity into national decision making processes so concerns about biodiversity becomes not only a concern for Environment Ministers but the whole of government including Finance Ministers, Agricultural Ministers and Prime Ministers,” he said.

Financial resource is a major issue.

“We’re spending a trillion a year on actions that are mostly harmful to biodiversity and people. There is a lot of potential for redirecting those perverse incentives or a small proportion of those to actions that support biodiversity.

“For instance, if we make these reforms, the world will be a better place for most people though our vested interests may lose out from some of these changes and they will always defend their positions very firmly.”

Achieving targets set in the plan, if it is adopted, will require countries to translate such plans into national actions.

“Global targets are important, they show the aspirations of what we want to achieve but a target to a marine related area is not relevant to a land logged country. So each country has to take responsibility for their targets.

“Some countries maybe able to do more than others because of their economic development and others are expected to do more than others for example to reduce the rate of deforestation.”

Once the plan is adopted, there will be a two year period where countries will be expected to develop their own national plans.

“And this is where NGOS and the media have an important role to play to make sure those targets are implemented and monitored.

“Parties to the convention [CBD] will then report at each COP their progress. It will be an opportunity to assess what is the cumulative effect on the targets being set.”

In April 2002, the Parties to the Convention committed themselves to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on Earth.

According to a report by the CBD titled Global Outlook 3, the 2010 biodiversity target has not been met at the global level.

Mr Cooper said this why a new Strategic Plan is necessary.

“I’m pretty confident the issues will be resolved and that a new strategic plan will be adopted next week.”

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'Black Cloud' hangs over Nagoya talks

24 October Nagoya, Japan - Climate change is going to make conserving nature more expensive.

Such has been described as a ‘black cloud’ hanging over the 10th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) to the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan.

Jaime Webbe, a Programme Officer of the Canada-based CBD, made the point when she addressed the media at the meeting about the linkages between climate change and biodiversity.

“There is not enough funding to implement all the programmes of the Convention of Biological Diversity and climate change is going to make the implementation of CBD harder and even more expensive,” she said.

“And that’s the environment we’re moving forward from COP 10 through the implementation of the strategic plan knowing we’ve got this black cloud hanging over our head.”

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) came into force on 29 December 1993. It has three main objectives. They are:
1. The conservation of biological diversity
2. The sustainable use of the components of biological diversity
3. The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources

From her many years with the CBD, Ms Webbe said there are significant observed and protected impacts from climate change on biodiversity.

“In China for example over 1500 species could become instinct because of climate change. By 2050, if the trend continues, the Great Barrier reef might lose 95 per cent of its living corals,” she said.

But biodiversity is also linked to mitigation and adaptation, she said.

“We know that biodiversity is a valuable resource in the fight against the impacts of climate change. Not only is it helping us to limit the extent of climate change, it is also helping us to adapt to the negative impact you’re going to see.”

She also highlighted the interaction between climate change and conservation practises.

“What we know is that as eco systems are affected by climate change, conservation strategies are going to need to change,” she said.

“So the traditional way of doing conservation and sustainable use, planning, approaches may no longer be valid. We need to be very aware about how the impact of climate change on biodiversity are going to affect the way we approach the responses to emerging global biodiversity crisis.”

Ms Webbe said climate change has changed the principle on which traditional conservation strategies are based.

“We’re seeing that already and we expect that to increase as climate change impacts increase,” she said.

“An example is assisted relocation. As a result of climate change, species are naturally going to move. But in some cases there are going to be some barriers to that.

“This is somewhat terrifying for the large majority of the biodiversity world because of what we’re seeing when we introduce species for economic reasons or integrated pets management. There is a very high risk that relocated species might become introduced species.

“Relocating species is such a complex issue but as a result of climate change, we might find it’s our only option.”

In some Pacific countries though, there are more pressing concerns than relocating species.

There are entire communities that need to be relocated because of rising sea level.

In Samoa for example, communities living on coastal areas have been urged to move inland to avoid the devastation experienced last year when a tsunami struck and killed 143 people.

The migration inland, however, has caused alarm among the conservation community who argue that deforestation is destroying biodiversity. For example, water catchments on the mountains are being destroyed as trees are felled to make way for houses and other developments.

Ms Webbe said it’s important to ensure decisions “we do take are as well informed as possible.”

She told the story about an island which was concerned about sea level rises so they decided to build a seawall.

“This island is not in the Pacific,” she said. “To build the seawall, however, they had to dredge the reef so they can use all the corals and all the rocks and everything to build the seawall.

“It took someone very progressive in the country to say well that’s not a good idea. Because you’re solving one problem and creating another so let’s look at different solutions.”

One of the possible solutions for the Pacific is new technology, she said.

She did not specify what technology but she explained; “This is where you do need free exchange of technologies, you need countries to be working together on this, you can’t put the burden on a small island to say well you’re on your own or if you need our help, we can charge you $500 a days for consultancy work.

“We have to start looking at solutions as a global responsibility.”

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Protocol seeks to protect indigenous knowledge

24 October 2010 Nagoya, Japan - Indigenous knowledge should be protected and communities which possess it must be adequately compensated if such knowledge is used for commercial purposes.

How much compensation, however, is one of the issues under the microscope in Nagoya as Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meet to review the progress of the convention.

Samoa is a party to the convention. Its delegation which includes the CEO of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Taule’ale’ausumai La’avasa Malua and Tony Tipama’a has been actively taking part in the discussions.

One of the working groups at COP 10 is negotiating a protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS).

Why is a protocol necessary?

Valerie Normand, an ABS Programme Officer for the CBD, said the reasons are twofold.

“The first is that providers [of genetic resource(s)] have been very concerned about the misappropriation of their resources,” she told the world media invited to Nagoya for COP 10.

“And this is due to in part to the fact it is very difficult to know what happens to a genetic resource once it leaves the provider country. So the Protocol aims to develop measures which will assist providers in ensuring the sharing of benefits from the use of their resources once they have left the provider country.”

Users of such resources and knowledge have also been complaining, she said.

“They have been very frustrated over the years with the absence of proper measures at the national level when they seek to obtain access to genetic resources,” said Ms Normand.

“So they want clear ABS procedures set up in countries so when they wish to set up ABS to genetic resources in a foreign country, they know who is the competent national authority and what exactly the procedures are they need to follow.”

Setting up ABS procedures though is a complex issue because it involves a number of actors at different levels, she said. There are also issues such as the scope of application and derivatives from genetic resources.

Genetic resources are used by various sectors for various purposes such as pharmaceuticals which use plants to develop treatment for diseases.

“These sectors add to complexity of ABS because each sector has different ways of going about the use of these genetic resources and the potential benefit to be shared from their use.
“The research community has also emphasised the need to facilitate access to genetic resources in order to be able to continue to understand better what are found in the natural world.”

The important link between genetic resources and traditional knowledge needs to be emphasised, she said.

“Traditional knowledge has been held by indigenous communities for centuries and often this traditional knowledge provides important links to identifying which resources actually have particular properties which can be useful to human well being.

A Protocol on ABS will facilitate the sharing of benefits between providers and users.

“In exchange for access to genetic resources, users of these resources are meant to share the benefits arising from their use. And this is set out in the Convention for Biological Diversity.

“Access to the genetic resources is subject to the prior informed consent of the provider country.

“A user must first seek consent of a country a resource is found in. A user can’t just go into a country, pick a plant and carry out research. They first have to obtain the approval of that country and they also need to negotiate mutually agreed terms and that agreement will include a number of requirements and conditions for access, and also most importantly the terms of benefit sharing.”

Benefits could monetary and non-monetary, she said.

“Monetary benefit arises when a product is developed on the basis of a genetic resource,” she explained. “The agreement between the user and the provider will say the royalties from this product will be shared with the provider.

“In the case that involves access to traditional knowledge associated with the genetic resource, the Convention also provides that the consent of the communities which hold that knowledge must be sought before they can obtain access to the knowledge.

“If this traditional knowledge is used and they eventually develop a product based on the knowledge provided, then they shall also share benefits with the indigenous and local communities.

“These are the principles the protocol will aim to further implement.”

Ms Normand said the protocol will ensure biodiversity rich countries obtain their fair share of benefits for the use of their resources through a fair and transparent legal framework.

According to the CBD, access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of their utilization: The Convention on Biological Diversity recognizes the sovereign rights of States over their natural resources in areas within their jurisdiction.

Parties to the Convention therefore have the authority to determine access to genetic resources in areas within their jurisdiction.

Parties also have the obligation to take appropriate measures with the aim of sharing the benefits derived from their use.

Genetic resources, whether from plants, animals or micro-organisms, may be used for different purposes.

Users of genetic resources can include research institutes, universities and private companies operating in various sectors such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, agriculture, horticulture and biotechnology.

Benefits derived from genetic resources may include the result of research and development carried out on genetic resources, the transfer of technologies which make use of those resources, participation in biotechnological research activities, or monetary benefits arising from the commercialization of products based on genetic resources.

ENDS

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