Convention on Biological Diversity COP12
CBD Meetings in Korea
6 Oct 2014: Several Ecoropa members are attending the CBD meetings in Korea: starting with MOP7 of the Cartagena Protocol, followed by COP12 of the Biodiversity Convention, and - paralell with it - the first MOP of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing, which comes into force right in the middel of the meetings on 12 October. The Ecoropa members Christine von Weizsäcker, Ricarda Steinbrecher, Antje Lorch, Helena Paul and Hartmut Meyer - in different functions - work on a range of issues during the meeting as well as edit the daily NGO newsletter ECO. Articles and... Read moreThe World is not on track to stop the loss of biodiversity
6 Oct 2014: Opening statement by Civil Society Organisations – CBD Alliance: We fully support the statement of the IIFB, including the proposal to use international accepted terminology like indigenous peoples. The CBD Alliance is deeply concerned to note the world is not on track to control the loss of biodiversity. And we cannot but notice that this Convention is not even implementing its own decisions. Worse still, in several cases, after good decisions are taken, issues seem to disappear from national and international agendas. Such is the case for agriculture, biofuels... Read moreSynthetic biology: Make or break for the CBD?
7 Oct 2014: The CBD has a major decision to make on synthetic biology at COP12. A great deal rests on it. Synthetic biology includes a number of modern biotechnology techniques, including many from standard genetic engineering. However, it goes beyond them in its use of human-made, computer-generated and often highly novel DNA, RNA and amino acids. It is difficult enough to assess the risks around genetic engineering, but synthetic biology greatly increases the level of complexity and the number of unknowns involved. However, so far there has been no real attempt to assess the... Read moreAnalysing the Term "non-discriminatory in the Context of Compliance"
30 May 2015: A short look back into the history of the negotiations of the Nagoya Protocol During the final stages of the negotiations on access and benefit-sharing in the rooms on the upper floor of the Convention Center in Nagoya, “non-discrimination” in the context of compliance was a controversial issue. The Canadian delegation insisted on having “non-discriminatory” in the text. After many rounds of argument they compromised to deleting this terminology. In the same room somewhat later representatives of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, also sitting at the... Read moreOctober 2014
Twelfth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Pyeongchang, Korea