Access to Genetic Resources: Workshop aims to build understanding of Nagoya Protocol
Participants educated on their obligations under Access and Benefit Sharing
PHOTO: REUTERS
ISLAMABAD:
The first ever national workshop on the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits, aiming to build the participants’ knowledge about their obligations under the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) regulations and what they practically imply for their everyday work, concluded on Friday.
The workshop, organised by the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC), allowed participants to better understand their obligations, current status of benefit sharing regime in Pakistan.
The current capacity and other gaps were also identified and the way forward was discussed under the Nagoya Law and to establish which steps were needed to follow and the practical measures that needed to be taken when dealing with genetic resources originating from parties to the Nagoya Protocol.
Director Biodiversity Ministry of Climate Change Naeem Ashraf Raja told the participants that provinces had announced their focal points, which is the first success in this regard. “We can share training with provincial focal persons and provinces and they can take further steps to reinforce ABS,” Raja said.
“After becoming a party to Nagoya Protocol, Pakistan is now in better position to get benefit from utilisation of genetic resources as well as subsequent applications and commercialisation shall be shared in a fair and equitable way with the contracting party, providing genetic resources on mutually agreed terms,” the MoCC Biodiversity Director Naeem Ashraf Raja told The Express Tribune.
Raja said that besides addressing benefit sharing with regard to genetic resources that are held by indigenous and local communities, as well as traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources, the Article 9 of NP also encourages direction of the benefits towards the conservation of biological diversity and sustainable use.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 21st, 2016.
The first ever national workshop on the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits, aiming to build the participants’ knowledge about their obligations under the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) regulations and what they practically imply for their everyday work, concluded on Friday.
The workshop, organised by the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC), allowed participants to better understand their obligations, current status of benefit sharing regime in Pakistan.
The current capacity and other gaps were also identified and the way forward was discussed under the Nagoya Law and to establish which steps were needed to follow and the practical measures that needed to be taken when dealing with genetic resources originating from parties to the Nagoya Protocol.
Director Biodiversity Ministry of Climate Change Naeem Ashraf Raja told the participants that provinces had announced their focal points, which is the first success in this regard. “We can share training with provincial focal persons and provinces and they can take further steps to reinforce ABS,” Raja said.
“After becoming a party to Nagoya Protocol, Pakistan is now in better position to get benefit from utilisation of genetic resources as well as subsequent applications and commercialisation shall be shared in a fair and equitable way with the contracting party, providing genetic resources on mutually agreed terms,” the MoCC Biodiversity Director Naeem Ashraf Raja told The Express Tribune.
Raja said that besides addressing benefit sharing with regard to genetic resources that are held by indigenous and local communities, as well as traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources, the Article 9 of NP also encourages direction of the benefits towards the conservation of biological diversity and sustainable use.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 21st, 2016.