Absalom Shigwedha
WINDHOEK – The use of Digital Sequence Information (DSI) on genetic resources will be one of the thorny issues to be debated at the14th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt next month.
The Chief Conservation Scientist in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Marthin Kasaona yesterday said there is a tussle on the issues between developed and developing countries and this was the reason why there was no consensus reached on this at the 22nd meeting of the CBD’s Subsidiary Body on Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA 22)
He said there is currently a debate as to what DSI include, what it does not include and whether it is part of the CBD’s Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing. “Namibia and the rest of Africa argue that DSI is part of the Nagoya Protocol and benefit sharing must be part of DSI,” said Kasaona. However, developed countries are on the opposite.
There is currently a growing idea that the scope of the CBD and the Nagoya protocol to include DSI as such or its use, as its increasing use to advance the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity does however, make a significant contribution to achieving the objectives and the CBD and the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing Arising from the commercial utilization of genetic resources and related traditional knowledge.
Kasaona said other issues to be discussed at the conference will be the idea of setting up Global Multilateral Benefit Sharing Mechanism, as there was no consensus at the second meeting of the CBD’s Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI 2). “
No discussion yet on modalities,” he said. The other issues to be discussed will be resource mobilization for biodiversity conservation and Kasaona said Namibia and Africa will press for continued support of Parties through the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) and the need for financial reporting to include a complex process of capacity building (may be from BIOFIN technical support).
“The resource mobilization must be an integral part of the post-2020 framework and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity will be requested to explore approaches for mobilizing additional resources from all sources,” said Kasaona.
Namibia and Africa, he said, will also request for the review of the Global Environment Facility mechanism for resource allocation so that Parties have direct access and use resources with the help of implementing agencies.
Issues of capacity building, technical and scientific cooperation, sustainable wildlife management, biodiversity and climate change (ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction) will also be tackled.
Kasaona said generally Namibia has done well in the conservation of biodiversity, at the national level. The CBD is one the three Rio Conventions, which emanated from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Its objectives are the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable benefits sharing arising from genetic resources.
CoP 14th of the CBD will be held from the 17th – 29th November and Namibia’s delegation will be led by the Deputy Minister of Environment and Tourism, Bernadette Jagger.
Kasaona said the Deputy Minister will be taking in the conference’s High-Level Segment, to be held from the 14th – 15th November 2018. The High-Level Segment of the conference will be held under the theme ‘Investing in Biodiversity for People and Planet” and Jagger will be making interventions at two roundtable discussions.
One will be a roundtable discussion on issues of genetic resources in manufacturing and processing and the other one will be issues on genetic resources when it comes to energy and mining. After her visit to Namibia in August this year, the Executive Secretary of the CBD Cristiana Pasca Palmer, applauded Namibia as having played a very active role and constructive role in the CBD discussions and is a strong supporter for international process. She said the CBD Secretariat is also benefiting from getting support and advice from the Namibian representative to the Bureau of the CBD’s SBSTTA.
“Namibia is doing impressive work to better understand the value of its natural capital and further integrate this knowledge into practical work to support national development while improving the status of biodiversity in the country.
This experience will be very useful to share with the CBD Parties including through active participation of Namibia in the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of Parties (CoP140 and associated events such as the Business and Biodiversity Forum, Wildlife Forum, the Nature and Culture Summit along with side-events during the course of the CoP,” Palmer wrote in a letter to Environment and Tourism Minister, Pohamba Shifeta, dated 7 September 2018.