Pyeongchang/Montreal,
26 September 2014 – On Monday,
delegates from around the world will convene for the seventh meeting of the
Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena
Protocol on Biosafety (COP MOP 7). The meeting will discuss and adopt further
decisions to contribute to ensuring the safe transfer, handling and use of
living modified organisms (LMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology and
consider the issue of integrating biosafety into other relevant national initiatives
to enhance further implementation.
The Cartagena Protocol, an
additional agreement to the Convention on Biodiversity, entered into force on 11
September 2003. To date, 168 countries are Parties to the Protocol. The
Supplementary Protocol, an additional agreement to the Cartagena Protocol, was
adopted in Nagoya, Japan in 2010. To date, 26 countries are Parties to the
Supplementary Protocol. It will enter into force 90 days after 40 Parties have acceded
or ratified it. The latest country to accede to the Cartagena Protocol and the
Supplementary Protocol is the United Arab Emirates on 12 September 2014.
At the end of the five-day
meeting, decisions of the Parties are expected to advance the implementation of
the Protocol through their 10-year Strategic Plan for the Cartagena Protocol.
Among the agenda items to be discussed are: financial mechanism and resources
for the Protocol’s implementation; Supplementary Protocol; risk assessment and
risk management; socio-economic considerations concerning LMOs; and the
assessment and review of the effectiveness of the Protocol. The Parties will
also convene a special session on the implementation of the Cartagena Protocol
to review integration of biosafety into relevant national development plans,
other relevant national policies in line with the Strategic Plan for the
Protocol.
The Minister of Trade, Industry
and Energy, Republic of Korea, Mr. Yoon Sang-jick, said: “We should seize this
opportunity to redouble our efforts to promote further guidance for integrating
biosafety into relevant national development plans, other relevant national
policies and programmes and mobilize additional resources in our effort to
implement the Cartagena Protocol.”
The Executive Secretary of the
Convention on Biological Diversity, Mr. Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, said:
“As we prepare towards the seventh meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena
Protocol on Biosafety, I call upon Parties to re-commit to the objectives of
the Protocol as their contribution to the theme of the Pyeongchang meetings:
“Biodiversity for Sustainable Development.”
