ID :
147462
Tue, 10/26/2010 - 13:10
Auther :

Gaps remain on major issues at biodiversity meet

NAGOYA, Oct. 25 Kyodo -
Parties at an international meeting on biological diversity have failed as of
Monday to make significant progress in drafting a protocol on equitable sharing
of benefits gained from products developed using genetic resources as well as
in compiling post-2010 targets for preventing biodiversity loss.
But aside from the key issues at the 10th meeting of the Conference of Parties
to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, participants agreed Monday
to call for the designation the U.N. Decade of Biodiversity.
In a working group session, they approved a resolution saying they will urge
the U.N. General Assembly during its session in December to designate the years
from 2011 to 2020 as the decade in which parties would continue efforts to
safeguard ecosystems.
The resolution, proposed by host Japan, aims to continue the global community's
work to try to preserve biodiversity around the world beyond this year, which
the United Nations has designated as the International Year of Biodiversity.
But the parties have failed to make much progress in narrowing differences over
the contents of a draft document on the protocol on access and benefit-sharing
of genetic resources, even after extending the deadline of last Friday and
continuing talks over the weekend.
Developing countries, which hold abundant natural resources, want to secure a
greater share of the benefits gained by industries that use the resources in
developing medicines and other products through a new protocol, while advanced
nations, where such industries are often based, want to keep the
benefit-sharing minimal without jeopardizing access.
The two sides have not been successful in mending their differences, and talks
are expected to drag into the conference's ministerial level segment that
starts on Wednesday. The meeting began Oct. 18 in the central Japan city and is
scheduled through Friday.
The parties also remain at odds over another key issue of setting targets for
reinforcing the safeguarding of biodiversity -- or the presence of diverse
plant and animal species in ecosystems -- after 2010.

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