Shared Benefits of Genetic Resources Divides Biodiversity Conference

Nagoya, Japan, Oct 23. -The subject of shared benefits of genetic resources has divided participants in the tenth Conference on Biological Biodiversity (COP10).

An example of the different positions is that Canada eliminated native peoples from the negotiations.

Native peoples maintain that they discovered the medicinal use of plants, whose active ingredients are used by pharmaceutical companies to produce medications and cosmetics. However, they do not receive any benefit from the lucrative profits made by those companies.

Native peoples hold that they are the custodians of biological diversity, and ignoring this reality is a wrong beginning for them and for the majority of the countries attending the meeting that will be in session up to October 29.

The Executive Director of the Innu Council Nitassinan (notheastern Canada), Armand MacKenzie, said Canada is blocking negotiations, weakening their rights and fighting against a legal protocol on access and benefits sharing.

A protocol that ensures benefit sharing of genetic resources, a strategic plan with 20 main goals to be accomplished in 2020, and using financial resources to support the already mentioned goals are the pillars of the meeting on Biological Biodiversity.

Differences should be resolved by the end of the meeting; otherwise a joint and effective tool to protect the biological diversity will not be created, experts said. (Prensa Latina)