Wednesday, September 10, 2014

The Nagoya Protocol- NEWS

The Nagoya Protocol enters into force on 12 October 2014 after receiving the required number of ratifications and its first meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties (COP-MOP 1) will be held from 13 to 17 October in Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea, concurrently with the twelfth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 12). Entry into force of the Nagoya Protocol and a fully functional Access and Benefit-sharing Clearing-House (ABS Clearing-House)  represents major steps in achieving Aichi Biodiversity Target 16, which provides that by 2015, the Nagoya Protocol is in force and operational, consistent with national legislation.
 
With a view to having a fully functional ABS Clearing-House, Parties are kindly reminded to expedite the designation of their publishing authorities and national authorized users for the ABS Clearing-House and are invited to actively participate in sharing national information through this platform. To support this process, the Secretariat is currently undertaking an outreach and engagement campaign among Parties and is available for providing training sessions in the format of webinars and technical assistance to Parties having designated their publishing authorities that request technical support for registering information on the ABS Clearing-House. Please contact absch@cbd.int if you require any assistance.
 
In addition, please be informed that in order to launch the operational phase of the ABS Clearing-House by the date of entry into force of the Nagoya Protocol, all test records currently hosted in the ABS Clearing-House will be deleted, and all information published in the central portal will become official information.
 
Against this background and in order to officially launch the operational phase of the ABS Clearing-House and conduct hands-on training, I am pleased to inform you that, thanks to the generous contribution of the European Union, a capacity-building workshop on the ABS Clearing-House will be held on 12 October 2014 in Pyeongchang, Republic of Korea, back-to-back with COP-MOP 1 to the Nagoya Protocol. The outcomes of this workshop will be made available to COP-MOP 1 as an information document.
               
A draft programme containing the objectives and methodology of the workshop is attached for your information and is available on the Secretariat website at the following address: http://www.cbd.int/doc/?meeting=ABSWS-2014-07.
 
The workshop will be divided in two different sessions: a general informative session in the morning and a training session in the afternoon.
 
The objective of the morning session is to launch the operational phase of the ABS Clearing-House and improve understanding of the role of the ABS Clearing-House for supporting implementation of the Protocol. It will also increase awareness of the importance of actively participating in sharing information through this platform. This session is open to the general public and interpretation will be offered in English, French and Spanish.
 
In the afternoon, the workshop will consist of a hands-on training on registering and retrieving information through the ABS Clearing-House. Only publishing authorities and national authorized users designated for the ABS Clearing-House are invited to participate in the afternoon session of the workshop. For this reason, Parties to the Convention are encouraged to designate their publishing authorities and national authorized users for the ABS Clearing-House prior to the workshop. Please refer to notification 2014-045 for further information on how to proceed with designations (http://www.cbd.int/doc/notifications/2014/ntf-2014-045-abs-parties-en.docx).
 
In order to enable hands-on training during the afternoon session of the workshop for the submission of national information, participants are highly encouraged to bring their own computer and national information on the following topics, if available:
 
(a)           Competent national authorities;
(b)           Legislative, administrative and policy measures on access and benefit-sharing;
(c)           Permits or their equivalent; and
(d)           Checkpoints.
 
The text of this notification is also available on the CBD website at: http://www.cbd.int/doc/notifications/2014/ntf-2014-110-absch-en.pdf
 

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