F.o.E. Intl report from the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) being held
in Malaysia
As reps from187 countries today gather in Kuala Lumpur for a key meeting on
biodiversity,Friends of the Earth Intl warned about the negative impacts of treating
life as a commodity.
From Feb 9-20 the 187 parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meet
for the seventh time to make decisions on a wide range of issues related to
biodiversity (1).
They will discuss the role of protected areas,technology transfer,and the rights of
Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Crucially,they will also decide if they will
start contraversial negociations on legally binding rules on access to genetic
resources and associated traditional knowledge,and the 'fair and equitable'
distribution of the benefits of this cultural and biological diversity.
F.o.E. Intl,the world's largest grassroots environmental organization,is concerned
about those rules,since biopiracy (2) is on the increase worldwide.
"New rules which treat genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge as
commodities are unacceptable as they risk facilitating biopiracy instead of halting
it",said Simone Lovera of FoE Intl.
"Patents on life threaten the main objective of this biodiversity convention;we need to
be preserving our planet's biodiversity" added Isaac Rojas of FoE,Costa Rica.
There are many activities that are directly responsible for the loss of biological
and cultural diversity. The logging (which caused the disappearances of a great part
of the world's forests) and mining industries are two major culprits.
F.o.E. Intl is calling on the conference:
* to ban large-scale commercial logging in tropical forests (for example in Malasia,
Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.)
* to ban mining,at least in the world's protected areas.
* to ensure explicit safeguards for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local
communities in the proposed workplan on protected areas.
* to not hold megociations on biopiracy rules (regime) that allow patents on life
and the treatment of biodiversity and associated traditional knowledge as a
commodity.
Notes; 1) Official website of the CBD : www.biodiv.org
2) Biopiracy is the appropriation and trading of gentic resources & associated
traditional knowledge
see also. F.o.E. : www.foe.org.uk
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I hope others will add their info to this and that F.o.E.Intl and other groups will
post updates and reports on this meeting on Indymedia.
