09 December 2022, Montreal Canada - An effective and coherent Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) that reflects the needs of Pacific islands must adequately address questions surrounding access and benefit-sharing from digital sequence information on genetic sources (DSI). This is critical in efforts to ensure our Pacific community’s resources are managed and protected.
The message comes from Mr Warwick Harris of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), who is one of the delegates from Pacific island countries attending the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in Montreal Canada, from 7 December until 19 December 2022.
“I know there are a lot of Parties that want DSI to be part of the GBF going forward, and that’s the position that the Marshall Islands and the Pacific islands hold at these negotiations,” said Mr Harris.
“We want this to be a key part of the GBF because it is there that the resources and the capacity will be built and the benefits will of course trickle down to the Parties and eventually our communities to ensure our resources are protected at the national level.”
As Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity try to reach agreement on the Global Biodiversity Framework that will essentially become a blueprint to save the planet’s diminishing biodiversity, one of the most significant topics negotiators are grappling with deals with concerns about digitally stored information on genetic sequences.
Some Parties have claimed that DSI should be recognised as part of genetic resources and therefore included in the access and benefit-sharing (ABS) mechanism of the CBD, as well as related provisions of the GBF. However, others have claimed that they would not adopt the GBF if the issue of the benefit-sharing solution were not satisfactorily addressed.
Limited consensus has been achieved despite intensive consultations in the Open-ended Working Group, in which Pacific delegates were actively engaged.
As negotiations continue, Mr Harris, who is the Deputy Director of the RMI Office of Environment Planning and Policy Coordination (OEPPC), said the discussion on genetic resources and digital sequencing information is an important topic for his country.
“We are a party to the Nagoya Protocol, and given that DSI is part of genetic resources, it’s important that we follow and understand the track of discussion and ensure our voice and views are reflected in the decisions,” he said. “Obviously we are years away until we are fully operational for the Nagoya Protocol, let alone to have the facilities and technologies, and the capacity on the ground to have our own database on DSI.
“But I believe it is important to take this opportunity to listen to the discussion taking place to ensure we stay up to date and follow the negotiations.”
According to Mr Harris, the state of play on DSI is slow.
“It is difficult for Pacific countries like RMI to fully comprehend the current state of play because of capacity issues, unlike some of the bigger nations who have experts on DSI and other different issues, we don’t have that luxury of having biologists, scientists and experts on all sorts of different issues right now. From what I can see, however, progress is fairly slow, like every other component of the GBF.”
But the slow progress has not deterred Mr Harris from continuing to advocate his country’s position.
“As I said before, the reality is that we are probably several years away from having a fully operational database as well as the Nagoya Protocol. At the community level, DSI is not even part of the conversation right now but we are doing a lot of work at the national level to ensure our community’s resources are managed and protected.
“We are part of the Micronesian Challenge, which aims to protect 50% of our marine resources and 30% of our terrestrial resources. Indirectly, we all know that the marine and terrestrial resources they have will be part and parcel of the GBF, so hopefully when it becomes operational, there will be a database on the generic resources at the national level.”
According to the CBD Secretariat, the issue of digital sequence information on genetic resources was considered by the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (COP 14) and by the third meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol (COP-MOP 3) and each adopted a decision: COP decision 14/20 and COP-MOP decision NP-3/12.
In decision 14/20, parties recognised the importance of digital sequence information on genetic resources for the three objectives of the Convention which are mutually supportive, although further work is needed to provide conceptual clarity on digital sequence information on genetic resources. Parties also recognised that access to and use of digital sequence information on genetic resources contributes to scientific research as well as to other non-commercial and commercial activities in areas such as biological diversity, food security and human, animal and plant health.
Parties recognised also that further capacity to access, use, generate and analyse digital sequence information on genetic resources is needed in many countries, and encouraged Parties, other Governments and relevant organisations to support capacity-building and technology transfer, as appropriate, to assist in the access, use, generation and analysis of digital sequence information on genetic resources for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and benefit-sharing.
The Conference of the Parties also noted that, as there is a divergence of views among Parties regarding benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources, Parties commit to work towards resolving this divergence through the process established in the decision, with the aim of strengthening the fulfillment of the third objective of the Convention and Article 15, paragraph 7, without prejudice to the circumstances to which this article applies.
In this regard, the decision established a science and policy-based process on digital sequence information on genetic resources for further work on this topic in the 2019-2020 intersessional period. The process entails the submission of views and information, the commissioning and peer review of four studies as well as work by an ad hoc technical expert group (AHTEG).
The outcomes of the AHTEG is being considered by the open-ended inter-sessional working group established under decision 14/34 to support the preparation of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Recommendations by the open-ended inter-sessional working group on how to address digital sequence information on genetic resources in the context of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework will be considered by COP15.
Mr Harris and other Pacific island country delegates have been actively taking part in the negotiations.
“Like all the parties here, as a representative of the Marshall Islands, I would like to see a GBF adopted, one that reflects all our priorities. It’s important to have a robust financial mechanism, coupled with the adoption of the GBF because we need the resources to help capacity building at the national level to help us effectively manage and protect our natural resources.”
The Fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15) is held in Montreal, Canada from 7 – 19 December 2022. Chaired by the Government of China, the CBD COP15 will result in a new Global Biodiversity Framework that will continue the 2020 Biodiversity Targets with the global goal of halting biodiversity loss.
Fourteen Pacific Islands countries are Party to the CBD. They are contributing to a unified One Pacific Voice on collective issues at COP15. The countries present in Montreal are the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
Led by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), support to Pacific island countries has been implemented with technical input through the Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservation (PIRT), and includes a One Pacific approach involving support from the Office of the Pacific Ocean Commissioner, and the Pacific Community at COP15 with financial assistance from the Government of Australia and the ACP MEA Phase 3 Project funded by the European Union and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States for the ACP countries.
For more information on the CBD COP15 please visit: https://www.cbd.int/conferences/2021-2022 or email [email protected]