UN meet discusses signing of Nagoya Supplementary Protocol

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity held deliberations on key issues including ratifying the 'NagoyaKuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress' and Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety among others.

Efforts are being made to adopt a framework to help countries in capacity-building in different components of biosafety. There was a discussion on the NagoyaKuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol, its current status of ratification and signing, said Charles Gbedemah, an official of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, in his briefing to reporters yesterday. The issues ranging from capacity-building, compliance to the protocol on bio-safety, the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol came up for discussion at the sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties (CoP-MoP 6) to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CPB) that began yesterday at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) here. The Supplementary Protocol which was adopted at Nagoya, Japan in 2010, received 51 signatures and two ratifications by March 6, 2012 when it was proposed for signature. The Supplementary Protocol will enter into force 90 days after 40 Parties have ratified it, Gbedemah said. The COP-MOP6 will continue discussions and adopt further decisions to contribute to ensuring the safe transfer, handling and the use of Living Modified Organisms (LMOs). A senior officer of the Ministry of Environment and Forests yesterday said that India was in the process of ratifying the Nagoya  Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress under Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD). The objective of this supplementary protocol is to contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking into account risks to human health, by providing international rules and procedures in the field of liability and redress relating to LMOs, he said. (

-PTI