Even before the dust has settled on the controversial Copenhagen climate deal, India is set to take the lead in pushing for a single legally binding treaty for access to and benefit sharing of biological resources at the 10th Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to be held at Nagoya, Japan, in October.
The CBD was one of the key agreements adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
The convention, while reaffirming the sovereign rights of nations over their biological resources, established three main goals — conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its component, and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of generic resources.
The major item for consideration at the 10th Conference of Parties (CoP) to the CBD is adoption of an international protocol on access and benefit sharing (ABS), which provides an opportunity to biodiversity-rich countries such as India to realise benefits for their people from the use of this biodiversity.
At a press conference here on Monday, Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh said developed nations were resisting the protocol, while biodiversity-rich countries were pushing for a single legally binding protocol.
“India can take the leadership position in asserting for a protocol though the positions of the developed and developing nations are far apart on the issue,” he said.
To host 2012 CoP
India would also host the 11th CoP to the CBD in October 2012 here. “The hosting of this CoP shows not only India’s role as a major mega diverse country but also its commitment to play a global leadership role in biodiversity conservation,” Mr. Ramesh said.
To address patenting, India was signing agreements with other patent offices for access to the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), which has about two lakh formulations in Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, and Yoga on 34 million pages. These agreements would enable research by international patent offices to prevent ‘bio-piracy’ of India’s traditional knowledge. However, no third party disclosure would be permitted, unless necessary.
An agreement was signed with the European Patent Office in February 2009, and with the United States Patent Office in November 2009 during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the U.S., Mr. Ramesh said.
