Hyderabad, Oct 2 (IANS) The progress in implementing the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress is slow, said a top official of the secretariat of Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
On the second day of the sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP MOP 6), delegates from over 150 countries discussed issues related to the implementation of the supplementary protocol.
The five-day meeting, which began Monday, 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.
Charles Gbedemah, head of bio-safety, CBD, said Tuesday that the reports submitted by the countries show the implementation of various components of the protocol was slow.
Out of 164 countries who are party to the Cartagena Protocol, 51 have signed the supplementary protocol adopted in 2010 and only three have ratified it.
Gbedemah attributed the slow progress in ratification to the delay in countries framing their national legislation on liability and redress. “Each country has a different political system and passing of legislation by their parliaments take a long time,” he said.
At least 40 countries need to ratify the supplementary protocol for it to come into force. “We can’t set a time-frame but we hope it would soon come into force,” he said.
The meeting would discuss ways to advance the implementation of the 10-year strategic plan for the protocol adopted at Nagoya, Japan, two years ago. “There will be mid-term review in 2015 and by 2020 we hope to have 100 percent implementation,” Gbedemah added.
The governments are discussing various issues like status of capacity building activities, risk assessment, risk management, trans-border movement of LMOs and socio economic considerations.
–Indo-Asian News service
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