The Nagoya Protocol seeks a fair and equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources. Its implementation and the legislation associated with it are complex and involve a high administrative burden with which research staff are not usually familiar. To provide them with the keys to its application, the Marine Research Center of the University of Vigo (CIM-UVigo), coordinator of the European Blue Biobank (EBB) project, organized this Friday, in collaboration with the Cetmar Foundation, a technical conference to publicize the existing obligations to access and use genetic resources that derive from this protocol and its regulations.
The conference was held at the Cetmar with full capacity and focused on the application of the Nagoya Protocol in the marine environment. The purpose was to inform attendees about the obligations and requirements established in the legislation, as well as to present and analyze examples of commercial and non-commercial use of marine resources within the scope of the protocol. In addition, the Guide to Good Practices for Access to Genetic Resources, developed within the framework of the EBB project, was also presented at this event. The session was attended by, among others, Noelia Vallejo, Spanish national focal point for the Nagoya Protocol of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition; Alejandro Lago, head of the UNDP-GEF ABS Global project and Fiz da Costa, researcher at CIM-UVigo and head of the EBB project.
Greater transparency and legal certainty
The Nagoya Protocol, in line with the guidelines of the Convention on Biological Diversity, has as its fundamental objective to share the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources in a fair and equitable manner, taking into account all rights over these resources and technologies, in order to contribute to the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of its components.
The countries that sign this agreement commit to establishing measures to ensure that access to genetic resources used in their jurisdiction is “in accordance with the national framework of the supplier country, thus committing to fighting biopiracy”, as the Ministry of Ecological Transition itself explains. To make this possible, the 92 member countries commit to establishing control points and requiring users of genetic resources to provide information about them, mainly through the certificate of compliance, if any. “This will result in greater transparency in the sectors that use genetic resources and in a more fluid and constant transfer of benefits to supplier countries, thus contributing to the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the reduction of poverty”, the ministry maintains.
In practice, these guidelines mean that potential users of genetic resources must obtain prior informed consent from the country in which the resource is located and negotiate and agree on the terms and conditions of access and use. Thus, the protocol offers a framework of greater legal certainty and transparency for both providers and users of genetic resources and helps to ensure benefit-sharing as well as to generate advances in the field of R&D on the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources.
The research activity of the CIM-UVigo and the dissemination and transfer activities of the Center have the support of the Xunta de Galicia and the European Union, through their co-financing under the FEDER/FSE Galicia 2014-2020 Operational Program.
Source: DUVI
