Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 10 • Number 12 • 5th April 2006

CBD COP Sets 2010 Deadline For Agreement On Access And Benefit Sharing

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The eighth Conference of the Parties (COP-8) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) came to a close in Curitiba, Brazil, on 31 March with an agreement to conclude negotiations by 2010 on an international regime for governing access to genetic resources and the sharing of resources derived from their use (’access and benefit sharing,’ or ABS). In spite of the presence of a record number of participants and side-events, the two-week gathering saw discussions on the more contentious issues, including those most immediately related to trade, deal with process more than substance. For instance, Parties focused mainly on how to structure the ongoing ABS talks, and effectively postponed discussions on incentive measures to promote biodiversity until the next COP, scheduled for 2008 in Germany.

Parties agree on 2010 deadline for ABS negotiations

Most developing countries came to Curitiba aiming to boost support for negotiations on an international ABS regime. However, several developed countries, such as Canada and Australia, remained reluctant to commit to specific outcomes or deadlines, preferring further examination of countries’ national experiences with ABS.

Norway, in contrast to its earlier ambiguity with regard to an international regime, strongly backed the developing countries, calling for the establishment of an intergovernmental negotiating body with its own chair and bureau.

The end-date for the talks on the international regime emerged as one of the most controversial issues at the meeting. While developing countries — for the first time in the ABS process speaking together as the G-77/China — sought to establish COP-9 in 2008 as the deadline, Canada and Australia would have preferred to delay the process further. The final decision calls on the Ad Hoc Open-Ended Working Group (AHWG) on ABS "to complete its work at the earliest possible time before COP-10," which would take place in 2010. Some observers welcomed the fact that a timetable had been set for the open-ended negotiating mandate adopted at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) as an important step forward in the talks.

Many also have high hopes for the expert group established by the COP to explore possible options for the form and functioning of an "internationally recognised certificate of origin/source/legal provenance" for genetic resources, and analyse its practicality, feasibility, costs and benefits (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 3 February 2006). The group, which will comprise 25 experts nominated by Parties and seven observers, can be expected to touch on many of the most contentious issues in the ABS negotiations, including how such a certificate could be used in patent applications. Peru and Spain will organise a meeting of the group in Lima at least six months before the next meeting of the AHWG, allowing it to input early on into the post-COP-8 talks.

The COP also agreed to appoint two co-chairs to head the ABS talks, which is likely to help ensure greater continuity in the negotiations, including in the intersessional periods. Fernando Casas of Colombia and Timothy Hodges of Canada were elected co-chairs.

Incentives discussions on hold until COP-9

To date, the CBD’s work on incentives has focused on developing proposals for removing or mitigating perverse incentives — i.e., incentives that can encourage unsustainable behaviour that destroys biodiversity, often as unanticipated side-effects of other policies — and applying positive incentives, such as economic, legal or institutional measures designed to encourage beneficial activities.

In Curitiba, discussions on incentive measures revolved around establishing a "structured, transparent and inclusive preparatory process" for the scheduled review of the work programme at COP-9. The chair of the COP discussions, Matthew Jebb of Ireland, was keen to keep the debate to procedural issues, with the support of Australia, Argentina, Brazil and New Zealand. These countries have repeatedly said that the CBD’s work on incentives overlaps with negotiations at the WTO, and that explicitly allowing measures to mitigate perverse incentives in the context of the CBD might provide an opening for countries such as the EU to provide agricultural subsidies "under the disguise" of biodiversity conservation (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 28 March 2006).

The EU made nominal efforts to push for finalising the proposals on perverse and positive incentives — forwarded by recent meetings of the CBD’s Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) — in Curitiba, but in the end seemed ready to put substantive discussions on hold until COP-9. One observer speculated that Parties would generally prefer to avoid discussing subsidies-related issues in the CBD while trade negotiations are still underway. The Doha Round WTO negotiations are scheduled to have finished well in time for the next COP in 2008.

The eventual decision — a compilation of proposals by Australia and the EU that were further refined in smaller groups — establishes a preparatory process for identifying possible elements and outcomes of the revised work programme on incentives. Inputs into the discussions will include contributions from Parties, other governments, international organisations and stakeholders on their experiences in the implementation of the incentives work programme.

COP-8 documents are available at http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meeting.aspx?mtg=COP-08.

Daily coverage was provided by IISD Linkages, http://www.iisd.ca/biodiv/cop8/.

ICTSD COP-8 Biodiversity and Trade Briefings on ABS, incentives measures and food and nutrition are available at http://www.trade-environment.org/page/ictsd/resource.htm#COP8.

ICTSD reporting.