Ireland 10th state to ratify the Nagoya - Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety

Montreal, 22 January 2013 – Ireland has become the 10th country to ratify the Nagoya – Kuala Lumpur

Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. Ireland deposited its instrument of ratification on 14 January 2013, making it the first country to ratify the treaty this year.

The Supplementary Protocol will enter into force on the 90th day after the date of deposit of the 40^th instrument of ratification or accession.

“Ireland’s ratification brings us closer to achieving the objective of ensuring the entry into force of the Supplementary Protocol before the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol, which will take place in October 2014 in the Republic of Korea,” said Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary to the Convention on Biological Diversity. “I urge all the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol that have not yet done so, to take the necessary steps to ratify or accede to this important treaty as soon as possible”.

Since 2011, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity has, with the financial support from the Government of Japan, organised a number of regional workshops to raise awareness and understanding of the provisions of the Supplementary Protocol with a view to facilitating its ratification and early entry into force. The workshop reports and resource materials are available on the Cartagena

Protocol website at: http://bch.cbd.int/protocol/supplementary/NKL_workshops.shtml.

Countries wishing to have further information on how to become a Party to the Supplementary Protocol can also consult the following website: http://bch.cbd.int/protocol/NKL_ratification.shtml.