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Convention on Biological Diversity - 8th Conference of the Parties (COP-7)

The Eighth Conference of the Parties (COP-8) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) closed its two-week meeting in Curitiba, Brazil, on 31 March with a record number of participants and side-events. Much of the discussions on the more contentious issues, however, including those most immediately related to trade, focused more on process than substance. On access and benefit-sharing (ABS), Parties agreed on how to structure upcoming talks on an international ABS regime, setting 2010 as the deadline for the negotiations. On incentive measures, Parties effectively put related discussions on the backburner until the next COP when the incentives work programme is up for an in-depth review.

Biodiversity and Trade Briefings | Reporting | Access & Benefit-Sharing | Incentive Measures | Events | Resources | Related Links

ICTSD COP-8 Biodiversity and Trade Briefings

Reporting

see also daily IISD Reporting.

Access and benefit-sharing

The COP had been asked by the Ad Hoc Open Ended Working Group (AHWG) on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit-Sharing to address four issues related to ABS: (1) the work schedule for the AHWG; (2) whether to convene an expert group to discuss the possible use of an international certificate of origin and the terms of reference for such a group; and whether to request the AHWG to examine (3) measures to ensure compliance with prior informed consent (PIC) provisions and (4) indicators for ABS.

While the creation of a draft text for the proposed international regime at the last meeting of the Ad Hoc Open Ended Working Group on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit-Sharing in February 2006 (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 3 February 2006) appeared to suggest some progress in the negotiations, more sceptical observers have predicted that several more years of negotiations might be necessary. They point to the numerous brackets still contained in the text, and the fact that the draft text does not reflect many of the options presented at previous Working Group meetings.

At COP-8, Parties will be asked to reconvene the Working Group and determine the Group's work schedule "so as to expedite and facilitate the early elaboration, negotiation and conclusion of the international regime on access and benefit sharing". Parties will also consider proposals on different areas that the Working Group would be requested to focus on, among them measures to ensure compliance with prior informed consent (PIC) and mutually agreed terms (MAT) provisions, including the issue of disclosure of origin/source/legal provenance. In addition, they will decide on the creation of an ad-hoc technical expert group to elaborate options for form, intent, practicality, feasibility and costs of an international certificate of origin/source/legal provenance.

Opinions have been divided on the extent to which the COP will actually enter into substantive debates on ABS or will rather stick to procedural discussions. Among the key questions for the negotiating process will be whether the COP will appoint a permanent Chair for the negotiations or continue to operate through the Working Group. Some have raised concerns that the chair of the Working Group is usually not appointed until the first day of the meeting and therefore is not able to carry out preparatory activities before or after the meeting. However, given that some countries continue to question whether there is actually a need for a negotiated international regime, they may resist the establishment of a process that could be seen as recognising the need for negotiations.

At the same time, the high political weight given to the issue by several developing countries, including Brazil as Chair of the COP, could facilitate informal talks at the meeting. COP-8 Chair, Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva, highlighted the political capital invested in the issue when she noted that "we are going to work hard in order for the international regime to be binding, and so that it is not understood as a tool to facilitate access, but to ensure protection and sustainable use and the distribution of benefits". However, developed countries are likely to try to throw sand in the gears of this process by pushing for a stronger focus on a gap analysis and the divergences in opinions on the current draft text in the Working Group.

Discussions at COP-8

The deadline for finalising talks on the international regime emerged as one of the most controversial issues. While developing countries -- for the first time in the ABS process speaking as the G-77/China -- would have liked to see COP-9 in 2008 to be included 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". While later than hoped for by developing countries, the fact that a timetable has now been set for the open-ended negotiating mandate adopted at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) was welcomed by some observers as an important step forward in the talks.

Many also have high hopes for the expert group established by the COP to explore and elaborate possible options for the form, intent and functioning of an "internationally recognised certificate of origin/source/legal provenance", 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. The meeting -- to be help at least six months before AHWG-5, thereby allowing the outcomes to input early on into the post-COP-8 talks -- will be co-organised by Peru and Spain in Lima, Peru.

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 as Co-Chairs. The AHWG is scheduled to meet twice before COP-9.

Background documents:

• ICTSD COP-8 Biodiversity and Trade Briefing No.1: Access, Benefit-sharing and Intellectual Property Rights
  
• Report of the Ad Hoc Open-Ended Working Group on Access and Benefit Sharing on the Work of its Third Meeting - UNEP/CBD/COP/8/5
  
• Disclosure Requirements: Ensuring mutual supportiveness between the WTO TRIPS Agreement and the CBD, November 2005
  By IUCN, ICTSD, CIEL, IDDRI and QUNO.
  
• The TRIPS Agreement and Convention on Biological Diversity, February 2006.
  By the World Trade Organization Secretariat.
• Interrelation of Access to Genetic Resources and Disclosure Requirements in Applications for Intellectual Property Rights: Report of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) - UNEP/CBD/COP/8/INF/7

• Analysis of Options for Implementing Disclosure of Origin Requirements in Intellectual Property Applications - Submission by UNCTAD - UNEP/CBD/COP/8/INF/25
  

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Incentive measures

Parties will also examine progress on the work plan on incentive measures, adopted at COP-5 in 2000, most notably texts on perverse and positive incentives forwarded by the tenth and eleventh meetings of the CBD Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) respectively. Concerns have been raised by several Parties that debate about the WTO-compatibility of measures adopted under Article 11 of the CBD have crowded out other issues that rightfully belong in CBD discussions on incentives. Article 11 of the Convention says that Parties shall "adopt economically and socially sound measures that act as incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of components of biological diversity". Incentives can be direct or indirect; positive, negative or perverse; focus on the community or national level; and may involve cash or in kind inducements to conserve biological diversity, use biological resources sustainably and equitably share the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.

While CBD discussions on incentives are intended to encourage Parties to identify policies that have, or could have, the effect of inducing actors to achieve or not compromise the objectives of the CBD, in practice discussions have to a large extent focused on concerns over agricultural subsidies. The potential for such subsidies to be included in the definition of either 'positive' or 'perverse' incentives was the subject of intense discussions at SBSTTA-10, which in turn led SBSTTA-11 to suggest changes in the CBD process on incentives in order to more carefully deal with the politically controversial elements, including those relating to trade. These elements will be examined in the in-depth review of the Convention's work on incentive measures, which is to begin shortly after COP-8 for COP-9, on which COP-8 has been requested to elaborate terms of reference, and to identify the best mechanisms to drive preparatory work for the major review and elements of a revised work programme.

Some Parties have suggested that encouraging trade in biodiversity-related goods and services, such as by drawing connections to WTO negotiations on environmental goods and services (EGS, see Bridges Trade BioRes, 3 March 2006), could act as a positive incentive for the sustainable use of biodiversity. Others, however, such as Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and Brazil, have suggested that the CBD should avoid stepping on the toes of the WTO, which is in addition to the work on EGS also engages in talks on regulating agricultural and fisheries subsidies. Some civil society groups have voiced scepticism that trade can act as a positive incentive for biodiversity, arguing instead that most incentives for increased trade -- for example, cuts to tariffs or reductions in non-tariff barriers -- have perverse, adverse effects on biodiversity.

Discussions at COP-8

At COP-8, much of the discussion on incentive measures revolved around establishing a "structured, transparent and inclusive preparatory process" for the schedule 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, and was supported by Australia, Argentina, Brazil and New Zealand. These countries raised concerns that explicitly allowing measures to mitigate perverse incentives in the CBD context could 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 the 10th and 11th meetings of the CBD's Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) -- at COP-8, 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. By 2008 -- the date of the next COP -- WTO negotiations are scheduled to have been finalised.

The final decision -- a compilation of proposals by Australia and the EU that were further refined in contact and 'Friends of the Chairs' groups - establishes a preparatory process to identify further outcomes that would be required from a revised work programme on incentives (for adoption at COP-9) and possible elements of a future work programme. Inputs into the discussions will include input from Parties, other governments, international organisations and stakeholders on their experiences in the implementation of the incentives work programme.

Background documents:

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The next COP will be held in Germany in 2008.

Resources

IUCN POLICY PAPERS FOR COP-8. These policy recommendation papers and information papers have been prepared by different components of IUCN as a contribution to COP-8.

Links

CBD COP-8 Home Page

IISD Daily Reporting

IUCN COP-8 Portal

WWF COP-8 Portal