Conclusion

Asean initiatives

IMPLEMENTING the access and benefit-sharing (ABS) scheme presents a challenge and an opportunity for many countries in the Asean region. There are a number of conflicting interests between providers and users of genetic resources, particularly in the areas of prior-informed consent, the fair and equitable sharing of benefits of indigenous and local communities, as well as the development, implementation and enforcement of ABS regulations among the member-states of the Asean.

Institutional, cultural and political constraints are the hindrances being faced by the Asean member-states in achieving this goal. Each country is at a different level of preparedness in implementing the ABS regime, with some countries already having legislation, policies and institutions in place, while others have yet to enact appropriate ABS legislation.

Asean has launched a number of regional initiatives to support ABS, the latest of which is the regional project on “Building Capacity for Regionally Harmonized National Practices for Implementing CBD Provisions on ABS.”  Funded by the UN Environment Programme-Global Environment Facility (Unep-GEF), the two-year initiative started this year with ACB, Asean Secretariat and the UN University-Institute of Advance Studies as executing partners.

At the first capacity-building initiative under this project, a workshop was recently held in Manila where 60 biodiversity experts from the 10 Asean member-states and Timor-Leste discussed the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol in Southeast Asia.

Rodrigo Fuentes, executive director of ACB, said the workshop enabled the participants to understand the salient provisions of the Nagoya Protocol, as well as its relationship with other international agreements on ABS. The two-day workshop, hosted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, identified the capacity-building needs of governments in implementing their national ABS policies.

Among the international experts who served as resource persons were Max Zieren, Unep-GEF’s Regional Focal Point Asia/Task Manager Biodiversity and Land Degradation; Dr. Gurdial Singh Nijar, director of the Centre of Excellence for Biodiversity Law and a professor at the Law Faculty of the University of Malaya, Malaysia; Dr. Geoff Burton, an adjunct senior fellow of the UNU-IAS; and Valerie Normand, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) programme officer on ABS; Dr. Sam Johnston of the UNU-IAS.

“The regional project is very timely, given the adoption of the Nagoya Protocol on ABS, after years of negotiation for an international regime to promote and safeguard the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources. Project activities to be undertaken will focus on national-level review and assessment of existing ABS policies, as well as assessment of the institutional capacities to implement these policies. These assessments will be elevated to the regional level to capacitate stakeholders, and assist in the development and drafting of new, if not revised, ABS policies, in line with the Nagoya Protocol,” Fuentes said.

What can be done?

WHILE efforts in bringing ABS to the level of national policy and implementation have been gaining ground, ABS measures in the region remain limited. The establishment of ABS legislation across Asean have been uneven, thus impending a coordinated approach to ABS.

Effective ABS strategies are needed to secure the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity of the countries, to ensure that the extensive stock of traditional knowledge of biodiversity held by the large number of indigenous and traditional communities is respected, preserved and maintained in accordance with the provisions of the CBD, to support the development of biotechnology in the region and to ensure that any benefits are shared equitably with the countries and communities that are providers of genetic resources.

The establishment of ABS legislation should be strengthened by public participation, which will then support the implementation process.

This gives multiple stakeholders, particularly indigenous communities, an opportunity to participate in the drafting of laws and policies that affect the use of natural resources and their traditional knowledge. This also increases public awareness of the benefits of ABS, since it serves to allow all parties to understand how to sustainably use and benefit from the use of biodiversity resources.

This allows stakeholders to value biodiversity resources, intellectual property rights, as well as fight bio-piracy.

Without proper legislation coupled with strict implementation, enforcement, and public participation and community involvement in the policy and decision-making processes, the security to be accorded to local communities and nation states in general will never be achieved.

With the adoption of the Nagoya Protocol, it is hoped that national legislations on ABS will now be put in place in order to carry out the objectives of the Protocol at the national level. ABS legislation is imperative for all provider countries since it provides protection and allows provider countries to assert their rights over biological resources that are rightfully theirs and benefits that they rightfully deserve.