Nagoya deal leads to call for biodiversity law

Global summit saw deal on sharing genetic resources; MEP says Commission must draft biodiversity law

A global agreement on fair access to the genetic riches of plants, pathogens and animals should be written into European Union law as soon as possible, according to a leading MEP.

In the early hours of Saturday morning (27 October) at a biodiversity meeting in Nagoya, Japan, delegates from around 190 countries made a deal on sharing genetic resources – 18 years after the idea was first mooted at the ‘Earth’ summit in Rio.

The Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) protocol, which is now likely to be referred to as the Nagoya protocol, will require companies and researchers to secure consent from local people before they take flora and fauna for scientific research. With up to half the turnover of the drugs industry dependent on genetic material, the agreement has serious implications for pharmaceutical firms, as well as the food and drink, cosmetics and horticulture industries.

Jo Leinen, a German Socialist MEP who chairs the European Parliament’s environment committee and was an observer at Nagoya, told European Voice that Janez Potoc?nik, the European commissioner for environment, should draft a law as swiftly as possible.

“The EU has to implement the ABS protocol by [introducing] an EU piece of legislation, not by 27 different laws…It is up to Potoc?nik to come forward with a biodiversity law,” he said.

Leinen said that because the US has not ratified the Convention on Biodiversity, the EU was under more pressure to take action. “Europe should take leadership. We are the focus of this ABS protocol…It is more the rich north that has to apply this law.”

Susie Wilks, a lawyer at Client Earth, said that many details still needed to be fixed. The protocol “needs to be legally binding if companies are going to take it seriously” with “robust monitoring and enforcement authorities”, she said. Wilks added: “It is extremely controversial, and different countries are going to come under pressure from companies.”

A spokesman for the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) said that the protocol “needs to be carefully reviewed to determine how it might affect industry operations”.

The Nagoya summit also set new targets on biodiversity protection: a goal to establish protected areas across 17% of the world’s land surface and 10% of oceans by 2020, as well as an overall target to reduce biodiversity loss. By 2012, rich countries must also identify funding sources to help developing countries meet these targets.

Under pressure

Participants at the biodiversity meeting feared that leaving Nagoya empty-handed would bring the international system of multilateral negotiations into disrepute, following widespread disappointment with the Copenhagen climate conference last year.

But the EU put a positive gloss on the outcome of Nagoya.

Potoc?nik said yesterday (3 November): “I am very proud to have taken part in what I hope will turn out to be a piece of history. The negotiations were long and difficult but their eventual success shows that the international community is capable of taking collective action to deal with serious global challenges.”

Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, a Dutch Liberal MEP who was in Nagoya, said it was up to all countries to implement these targets, but he was not optimistic.

“One of the biggest weaknesses is that there is no legally binding agreement and no rules for enforcement.”

“I still don’t believe people understand the scope of what we are talking about. Most people still believe biodiversity is only about saving the tiger,” he said. “But to quote Bill Clinton, ‘it’s the economy, stupid’. And that message did not come across.”

The European Commission’s environment department will be proposing a ten-year plan on nature protection in December. The enterprise department will put forward guidance on the use of raw materials on17 November.