The much-awaited global biodiversity meet in the Indian city of Hyderabad was declared open on Monday by Jayanthi Natarajan, the Union minister of environment and forests.
Over 1,000 delegates from across the globe have trooped in to be part of the first segment of the meet, Meeting of Parties (MoP 6), where participants will deliberate and take forward the Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety, which was adopted by members of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in January, 2000.
The five-day meet will be followed by the Conference of Parties (CoP -11), which begins October 8.
According to MoEF officials, close to 12,000 delegates have so far registered for the 19-day event. More than 300 side events have been planned that will run alongside the convention, to be conducted by ministries, government-funded groups and civil society organizations from among the delegates.
“A special science express biodiversity special train that was flagged off from New Delhi on June 5 will also be reaching Secunderabad on October 9 and will be stationed there till the end of the summit,” said MF Farooqui, special secretary, MoEF, India. The train displays the country’s rich wealth of biodiversity and the importance of protecting the environment.
Speaking at the inauguration, Natarajan said that India had already agreed to the Cartagena Protocol and was in the process of ratifying it. The protocol, which led to the creation of the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress in 2010, deals with the identification, safe handling and transfer of living modified organisms (LMOs) and its benefits in acquiring food security in the long run. “India is committed to the development of biotechnology. But while LMOs are important for future growth, it is also controversial. Trade in LMOs cannot be done without looking at the adverse impact of such organisms,” she said. Quoting from data available with her ministry,
Natarajan said that investment in biotechnology has seen a consistent rise in the Asia-Pacific region. To allow more progress, the MoEF minister, as the new president of the convention (by virtue of being the host country), urged more member countries to work together to strengthen bio-safety measures the world over. She also stressed on the need for more cooperation and knowledge-sharing among member countries of the CBD to allow better management of LMOs.
“There are also several socio-economic concerns, pertaining to indigenous and local communities, which need to be discussed to make this bio-safety protocol work
. Our intention, over the next few days, is to look into these aspects and see if we can urge more members countries to sign in to the protocol,” said Braulio Ferreira de Souza Diaz, executive secretary to CBD. Briefing participants, Diaz said that the event would deal with access and benefit-sharing of biodiversity among member countries. While India is one of the first few countries to have agreed to this move, there has been much criticism of how it has been ignoring those local communities which have preserved its biodiversity for centuries. Addressing this concern, Farooqui said, “The central government has recently released Rs 300 crore for strengthening of the biodiversity authorities at the grassroots level. This will allow communities’ participation in deciding whether India should open its biodiversity to other countries”.
2012 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.