New deadline for discussions on access to biodiversity and sharing of benefits

An unexpected intervention by Brazilian minister of Environment Carlos Minc during last Thursday's (April 23) session - held to approve a text on planetary biodiversity - of the G8 Environment Ministers Meeting in Syracuse, Italy, was backed up by various countries and led to a major breakthrough: the establishment of a deadline for closing discussions on access to biodiversity and on the equitable sharing of benefits arising from its use.

Reference to this topic is fundamental to countries such as Brazil which harbour extremely rich biodiversity: it strengthens the international struggle against biopiracy, helps guarantee financial resources for local communities involved and preserve ecosystems such as the Amazon Rainforest.

On Wednesday (April 22), during a technical meeting to consolidate a text to be signed by Environment ministers participating in the Syracuse summit, delegates from industrialized countries such as the USA joined forces to suppress from the Syracuse Charter on Biodiversity any references to the matter. On the next day, however, facing Minc's protests, the assembly of ministers decided to accept the Brazilian position.

G8 (the seven richest countries in the world, plus Russia) Environment ministers participate in the Syracuse summit promoted by Italy until Friday (April 24). Environment ministers from developing countries with stronger economies such as South Africa, Brazil, China, India and Mexico were also present. During the meeting - which discussed topics related to climate change and biodiversity -, Brazilian environment minister Minc gained recognition for various relevant session interventions. On Thursday (April 23), Minc managed to change a decision which had already been made at the expense of Brazilian and other biodiversity-rich countries' interests.

"Everyone recognized that it was a victory for Brazil and for biodiversity itself, so that an international regime on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS), so strategic to Brazil, may suffer no further delays", said Minc. After his intervention, Minc was backed up by South Africa, Germany, Canada, India and Mexico, and the Syracuse Charter ended up being altered.

Politically important - The Syracuse Charter on Biodiversity is a nonmandatory but politically important document which addresses various matters related to biodiversity, such as its relation as to economic development, to scientific research and to climate change. In a technical meeting last Wednesday (April 22), Brazilian delegates  had already managed to include important topics for Brazil in the Syracuse Charter, such as the struggle against wild animal trafficking and the support to the establishment of forest corridors, both fundamental to combat biodiversity destruction. Reference to ABS, however, had been suppressed.

Following minister Carlos Minc's intervention, however, the text then included a new premise: that signatory countries of the Convention on Biodiversity must conclude the negotiation process underway by October 2010 for elaboration of the ABS' basic text. The political establishment of a deadline for the negotiation of this basic text is important because, in October next year, Japan will hold COP-10, a summit of signatory countries of the Convention on Biodiversity. This international forum has the legal power to approve the ABS text, so that it may come into effect with immediate financial results.

Since COP-8, held in the Brazilian city of Curitiba in 2006, and through COP-9, held in Bonn, Germany, in 2008, signatory countries of the Convention on Biodiversity decided that an international legal regime on biodiversity access and benefit sharing should be urgently approved.

However, some industrialized countries - those which harbour powerful pharmaceutical laboratories to research the active principles of natural products such as medicinal plants - oppose this legal regimen. The USA, as yet not signatory of the Convention on Biodiversity, are amongst the most resistant to ABS.

Thus, even after the decision made in COP-8 and reiterated in COP-9, the world has not as yet come to an agreement about the deadline for the basic ABS text. Now, however, after Minc's intervention, the Syracuse Charter states that the negotiation process should be rounded up by COP-10.

"Brazil altered the Syracuse Charter; this was undoubtedly an important victory. Some rich countries obviously resist to approving ABS so as not to have to pay for controlled access to biodiversity resources; at the moment, they still have free access to them", said Minc.