Closing the 2023 Geneva Meetings
Throughout the weeklong meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity the Working Groups took up the call by governments, made in Montreal, Canada at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in December of 2022, to:
- affirm the need for further enhancing the role and participation of indigenous peoples and local communities in the work of the Convention and the implementation of its Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework; and
- advance their discussions on the development and operationalization of a multilateral mechanism, including a global fund, for the sharing of benefits from the use of digital sequence information (DSI) on genetic resources.
Delegates made progress, but more discussions will be needed at the upcoming meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 16), to be held in 2024. Following the meetings, a number of informal consultations are expected to be held to consider issues that needed further work to understand the underlying interest, views and positions of delegations before resumption of negotiations.
Watch the WG8J 12 Closing Plenary here
Under the Convention on Biological Diversity, traditional knowledge, the innovations and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities, are central to meeting the objectives of the Convention, for the achievement of conservation, sustainable use, equitable sharing of benefits, the implementation of the Framework, and the three objectives of the Convention.
The Working Group provided updates to the knowledge management component of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adding elements related to the role of traditional knowledge and its relationship to science and other knowledge systems. This update will be reviewed by the next meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation that will meet in May 2024, in Nairobi.
Watch the WGDSI 1 Closing Plenary here
DSI is a placeholder term to refer to data derived from de-materialized genetic resources. It includes nucleic acid sequence data and potentially other data such as protein sequence data. The traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples and local communities associated with the use of genetic resources is also relevant.
DSI is crucial to research in a wide range of contexts, including public health, medicine, plant and animal breeding, evolution research and the achievement of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s objectives, namely the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources, as well as the objective of its Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing.
At the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Montreal, Canada, in December 2022, governments agreed that benefits from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources should be shared fairly and equitably (decision 15/9) and further agreed to establish, as part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (decision 15/4), a multilateral mechanism for benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources, including a global fund. They agreed that the development and operationalization of this would be according to a fair, transparent, inclusive, participatory, and time-bound process (decision 15/9).
The Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Benefit-sharing from the Use of Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources will meet a second time, in Montreal, Canada, in August 2024, to further the discussions and to make recommendations for consideration and adoption by the Conference of the Parties at its sixteenth meeting (COP 16).
I would like to thank all Parties, all representatives of indigenous peoples & local communities, women, youth, other parts of civil society & other stakeholders for your hard work in moving us in this direction. 🤝
— David Cooper (@hdavidcooper) November 20, 2023
Outcome of #GenevaMeetings 👇https://t.co/VHO1C5RZlJ pic.twitter.com/gc69wYefcR
More information:
Press Release: Closing WGDSI 1
Press Release: Closing WG8J 12
2023 Geneva Meetings Highlights
The Working Group looked at how the provisions under the Convention on Biological Diversity-- related to traditional knowledge, the innovations and practices of indigenous peoples and local communities-- and the participation of indigenous peoples and local communities could be further expanded across the work of the Convention and to reprioritize elements and tasks to ensure that it is supportive of human rights-based and gender-based approaches, coherent with the goals and targets of the Framework.
The review of the programme of work for Article 8(j) and related provisions developed detailed proposals but further discussions are needed at COP 16 to finalise a new programme of work related to indigenous peoples and local communities for adoption.
The Working Group also looked at options for institutional arrangements covering Article 8(j) and other provisions of the Convention, and their modus operandi, including the participation of indigenous peoples and local communities in the work of the Convention.
Options that were considered included:
- continuing the Working Group with a revised mandate focused on the Global Biodiversity Framework;
- establishing a permanent subsidiary body on Article 8(j) and related provisions with a mandate to provide advice to the Conference of the Parties; and
- applying the enhanced participation mechanisms already used by the Working Group for the participation of representatives of indigenous peoples and local communities in other subsidiary bodies of the Convention, such as the scientific (SBSTTA) and implementation (SBI) bodies when addressing matters of direct relevance to those groups.
The meeting did not reach a conclusion on these arrangements, and discussions will be continued at COP 16.
In Geneva negotiations on the multilateral mechanism, led by co-chairs Martha Mphatso Kalemba of Malawi and William Lockhart of the United Kingdom, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, addressed 16 different issues identified as central to the creation of such a mechanism, set out in the Annex to decision 15/9. These issues were clustered into five groups:
- Contributions to the fund, including triggering points for benefit-sharing and some aspects of the role and interests of industry and academia;
- Disbursement of the funds, including disbursement of monetary benefits, including information on geographical origin as one of the criteria, some aspects of the role, rights and interests of indigenous peoples and local communities, including associated traditional knowledge;
- Non-monetary benefit-sharing, including information on geographical origin as one of the criteria, capacity development and technology transfer, including linkages between research and technology and the multilateral mechanism on benefit-sharing;
- Governance, including the monitoring and evaluation and review of effectiveness, principles of data governance and some aspects of the role, rights and interests of indigenous peoples and local communities, including associated traditional knowledge, and interests of industry and academia;
- Relation to other approaches and systems, including the potential to voluntarily extend the multilateral mechanism to genetic resources or biological diversity, other policy options, the interface between national systems and the multilateral mechanism on benefit-sharing, the relationship with the Nagoya Protocol and the adaptability of the mechanism to other resource mobilization instruments or funds.