ENVIRONMENT-LATAM:
Demands for Piece of Biodiversity Pie

By Marcela Valente


BUENOS AIRES, (IPS) - The developing South needs more transfers of resources and technology from the industrialised North and an equal distribution of the benefits derived from biological wealth, according to the Latin American and Caribbean environmental officials meeting in the Argentine capital.

These are the points that the region's representatives will insist on -- as a united front -- at the 7th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, to take place in Kuala Lumpur, Feb. 9-20.

The participants took advantage of the Buenos Aires meeting to discuss the proposals they will take to the first meeting of parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which entered into force last Sep. 11. That conference is also slated to take place in the Malaysian capital, Feb. 23-27.

Since the first official conference on biodiversity took place in the Bahamas a decade ago, there have been important advances in terms of "conservation", Raúl Estrada Oyuela, head of environmental affairs for the Argentine foreign ministry and chair of Friday's regional meeting, said in an IPS interview.

But for the two other aims of the Convention on Biological Diversity -- which 188 countries have signed -- negotiations have proven more difficult, he said. There are differences of opinion when it comes to "sustainable use" of biodiversity and efforts to achieve "equitable participation" in the benefits that biodiversity provides.

Estrada noted that conservation of biodiversity is an easier sell, and has the support of most developing countries and also of the industrialised world, particularly the nations of the European Union.

But for sustainable use of biological resources -- genes, species and ecosystems -- "what is needed is money, and it has not arrived," he said.

According to the Convention on Biological Diversity, financing for its projects is to come from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), an entity administered primarily by the World Bank, and to a lesser extent by the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Development Programme.

Environmental groups and governments of developing countries question the GEF because, they say, it does not take into account the priorities of the countries involved in the biodiversity projects, and tends to approve plans that are geared more towards conservation, rather than sustainable use.

The world's biodiversity is overwhelmingly concentrated in the countries of the South.

Estrada underscored the concern amongst the Latin American and Caribbean delegates about the lack of progress towards equitable participation in biodiversity's benefits. For example, the countries that possess the resources and the countries that use those resources for industrial purposes should all get a piece of the profits.

"Our region wants to place emphasis on increased financing for sustainable use projects, and on working for greater participation in biodiversity's benefits, because if a plant with healing properties from the Amazon ends up in a laboratory in Switzerland, there should be equivalent recognition for all involved," Estrada said.

To that end, the delegates gathered in Buenos Aires studied proposals for a framework for controlling access to genetic resources and for different ways of giving credit to those who hold knowledge about their biological properties.

Such information is often used by the powerful food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, which create products based on those biological resources.

Emerging from Friday's meeting was the notion that just as an international biosafety agreement was needed to regulate the transport and handling of genetically modified organisms, such as seeds, an agreement is now necessary to ensure fair participation in biodiversity's benefits.

"In Kuala Lumpur we must initiate a negotiating process similar to the one that gave rise to the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol, and it can be determined later whether it will be an international law or a specific protocol. But we have to move step by step, beginning with the upcoming conference," said Estrada.

Within the Latin American region, there is growing awareness that indigenous communities should be involved in decisions on biodiversity. Their traditional knowledge about the medicinal uses of plants and animals is at the root of the many "discoveries" by industries, which then reap the profits by patenting resources and information that originated with the Indians.

The Argentine official commented that the indigenous peoples "should participate in the process, but must also understand that what is important here is not to hide these resources," but to organise to sell them efficiently and sustainably.

"Defensive positions lead nowhere," said Estrada.

Participating in the regional meeting were environment officials from: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, St. Kitts and Nevis, Uruguay and Venezuela.