New Era

WINDHOEK - Namibia is hosting a continental conference in preparation for the finalisation of an international regime on access and benefit-sharing of the world's biodiversity and genetic resources later in the year at Nagoya, Japan.

Eighteen years ago, in 1992, the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, concluded the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

This set out three objectives: to conserve biological diversity, to sustainably use biodiversity, and for the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.

In 2002, a similar summit was held in South Africa, where world leaders acknowledged progress made in relation to the two first pillars of the convention. But they also recognised that little has been done to achieve access and benefit sharing.

This summit then called for the establishment of an international regime to ensure a fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.

The climate change discussions in Copenhagen last December, has again put emphasis on this matter, and the global community has engaged in international negotiations for the access and benefit-sharing (ABS) mechanism, and particularly developing nations are clamouring for its adoption and implementation.

African technical experts and negotiators met in Windhoek last week to thrash out Africa's position. This week, environmental ministers from 38 African States and three European ones - Denmark, Germany and Norway - are again in Windhoek to finalise Africa's position before the negotiations continue in Japan later in the year.

African leaders have said that without effective and wide-ranging benefit sharing to drive sustainable use, the cost of conservation may simply be too high for many poor rural communities, who in Africa are the real custodians of biodiversity.

The consequences for biodiversity, said the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET), will be dire because there will be no incentive and justification for poor people to conserve it.

"To us benefit-sharing is therefore the key that will unlock effective implementation of the other objectives of the convention," said the MET.

In fact, added Dr Bakary Kante of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), this issue is more important than the Kyoto Protocol because it is at the heart for the sustainability of the earth.

ABS is thus emerging as a major issue for most African countries, and said the experts, requires political awareness and guidance, technical knowledge and functioning regulations that will allow for access to genetic resources while ensuring benefits for the provider country on all levels - from government institutions to communities where the resources are found.

President Hifikepunye Pohamba said Namibia is anxious to such an international regime that will ensure that countries well endowed with biodiversity will obtain a fair and equitable share of benefits from their natural resources.

"There is no doubt that benefits from the utilisation, harnessing and value addition to biodiversity can be extensive. There are countless ways in which rural communities can benefit from the proper utilisation and addition of value to biological resources using available technologies," said Pohamba.

In Namibia, said Pohamba, efforts are being made to ensure that indigenous communities can share in the benefits of the exploitation of indigenous plants like the devil's claw and hoodia.

"I also believe that for any access and benefit sharing regime to succeed, it must be underpinned by modern national legislative and regulatory frameworks with the necessary enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance," said Pohamba.

Minister of Environment and Tourism, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, said for many African communities, the ecosystem is the greatest and most reliable service provider for food, shelter and health in situations where it is not possible for governments to provide these.

"The loss of biological and genetic diversity and associated traditional knowledge results in the loss of livelihoods and erosion of cultures of communities whose lives are intertwined with ecosystems," she said.

But many plant and animal species are worryingly disappearing fast. The CBD secretariat stated that species are disappearing 50 to 100 more than what they would have naturally.

An estimated 34 000 plants and 5 200 animal species, including one in eight of the world's bird species face extinction.

About 45 percent of the forests, home to most of the world's known terrestrial biodiversity, are gone, and while there are some re-growths, the world's total forests are shrinking at an alarming rate, particularly in the tropical regions.

And up to 10 percent of coral reefs, which are of the most biologically diverse ecosystems, have been destroyed and a third remaining face collapse over the next 10 to 20 years.

"Plant and animal genetic resources are the foundation of all agriculture and therefore food security," said Nandi-Ndaitwah.

The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) said the world loses one livestock breed per month, of which over 190 has become extinct over the past 15 years. A further 1 500 or 30 percent of farm animal species now risk extinction. And this while 70 percent of the world's rural poor depend on livestock for sustenance.

Nandi-Ndaitwah said biodiversity loss similarly has grave impact on healthcare.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said 80 percent of the world's population depends on healthcare provided by medicinal plants and the associated traditional knowledge of indigenous communities forms up to 70 percent of the basis of modern pharmaceuticals.

Nandi-Ndaitwah said 90 percent of the medicinal plants are found in developing countries on the lands of the indigenous communities.

A further aspect to the loss of biodiversity, said Nandi-Ndaitwah, is the loss of cultural diversity because culture is tied to resource-dependent ways of life.

"Indigenous people represent the largest portion of cultural diversity on earth. Linguistic diversity can be considered a measure of cultural diversity; nearly 5 000 of the over 6 000 languages in the world are spoken by indigenous peoples and 90 percent of the world's languages will be extinct in the next 100 years," enumerated Nandi-Ndaitwah, concluding: "Lack of secure rights to sustainable livelihoods is rendering many African communities extinct."

As far as costs are concerned, a 2009 Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity study showed that future losses of ecosystem services would range between US$1.35 trillion to US$3.1 trillion per year.

Lucy Mulenkei of the Indigenous Information Network (IIN) said indigenous and local communities of Africa have been at the forefront reaffirming their role in sustainable development.

Hence, she said, there is a strong need to accord these communities full and effective participation within the convention of biodiversity process to ensure that their rights and concerns are fully taken into account in the ongoing negotiations - and beyond.

The preamble of the African model law on biodiversity, reminded Mulenkei, states that it is the duty of the state and its people to regulate access to biological resources and to community knowledge and technologies.

This, she said, gives indigenous and local communities the strength to all on ministers to ensure the protection of traditional knowledge in ABS legislation and to take measures to effectively involve these communities in all ABS-related decision making processes.

And, said Chief Legal Officer of ICIPE, Peter Munyi, Africa stands to lose - as it has in the past - greatly if there are no internationally binding mechanisms to ensure fair and equitable benefit-sharing.

According to Munyi, Africa, richly endowed with numerous genetic, biological, forestry and mineral resources, is the centre of origin for many resources.

The scramble for Africa and subsequent colonialism, he said, "were not gratuitous efforts to civilise mankind". Instead, said Munyi, these events were about the continent's natural resources.

"Misappropriation of resources is therefore not a new phenomenon. The only new thing about it now is that we now call this bio-piracy, where the subject matter for misappropriation is biodiversity. Sadly, misappropriation of resources, including genetic resources, continues unabated, especially in those pockets of our continent where good governance is not tolerated," he said.

More than half of all the parties to the CBD are from Africa. This, said Munyi, is a tacit acknowledgment that Africa values its biodiversity and is keen to see it conserved and its components sustainably used.

"This is also a tacit acknowledgement that African countries are committed to fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of utilitisation of genetic resources, not to mention an affirmation of their sovereign right to exploit their own resources pursuant to their own environmental policies," said Munyi.

But, he added, more than 80 percent of African countries have not put in place national ABS measures.

Also, he said, where genetic resources are found, very little value addition to the resource in the continent prior to the resource being exported has occurred.

"In fact, rarely are genetic resources exported in or as finished goods, from Africa."

This, he said, means two things: that very little research and development happens in Africa, and that the level of investment has to be made after access for benefits sharing to arise.

"Unfortunately, this level of investment is not obviously taking place in Africa," he said.

It appears, he said, that the potential to invest both technically and financially on genetic resources prior to benefits arising "does not lie in Africa".

"However, all is not lost. To my mind this is a reversible hypothesis, and an international regime on ABS is a key to unlocking and turning around the current status of things. The ABS regime is, however, not the proverbial silver bullet."

If an international regime on ABS is to mean anything, he said, Africa must consider the following in its negotiations: first, that legal certainty is key to any ABS regime. This means that enactment of an international regime on ABS must be followed by an attendant implementation of this regime at national level.

Second, African countries should increase domestic expenditure on research and development.

This, he said, should not be confused with the attraction of foreign investments for this, but spending from Africa's own pockets. At the moment, most African countries spend less than 0.25 percent on research and development of their total revenue. The recommended level is one percent.

"Africa makes incredibly low financial contributions towards international publicly funded agricultural research. Yet it benefits most in return. I'm sure that the scenario in other research sectors is much the same," said Munyi.

The ABS regime, he suggested, should be viewed as a turning point where capacities of national research institutions are not enhanced, less value addition to resources accessed will occur and therefore less benefits will be realised.

"As long as we do not invest in our national research systems, we will never be able to utilise intellectual property rights as tools to protect inventions, for there will be no inventions to be made," he said.

Danish Minister for the Environment, Karen Ellemann, said a new ABS regime could mean great scientific progress: progress in the private sector and benefits for the consumers in both developed and developing countries.

But, she said, such a regime must be founded on the fundamental principle of sovereignty.

"States hold the sovereign rights over their natural resources. Government authorities determine access to their genetic resources," she said.

And while a lot of work has gone in to develop positions, there remain a risk that the negotiations may not advance quickly enough to allow for a new regime.

She said there is one final meeting on an ABS working committee to reach agreement and lay down foundations for a final agreement in Japan, and that Denmark is strongly committed to ratifying and implementing such a new regime.

"I am convinced that Africa will gain significant benefits when a fair and equitable international regime on ABS is reached," said Pohamba hopefully.

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