In Brief

EUROPEAN STUDY HIGHLIGHTS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF DOHA ROUND

A study released by the European Commission on 22 April warns that negotiations currently underway as part of the WTO's Doha round of trade liberalisation talks may exacerbate climate change and biodiversity loss due to increased emissions of greenhouse gases and the conversion of forest land to agricultural uses. The Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA), carried out by an independent research team at the University of Manchester in the UK for the EU, looks at liberalisation in the agriculture, forests and distribution sectors and makes predictions about impacts on economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainability. It found that while liberalisation is likely to have an overall adverse impact on countries' ability to achieve Millennium Development Goal 7, on environmental sustainability, the implications for developed and developing countries differed widely. While developed countries can expect overall effects from liberalisation to be beneficial across sectors and in all three sustainability aspects, developing countries will face mixed economic and social effects, and negative environmental effects overall. The study highlights the potential for significant negative impacts on the environment from trade liberalisation that are likely to result from increased transport, packaging, unsustainable forestry harvesting, increased agricultural production in biologically sensitive areas, and increased use of agro-chemicals. However, the assessment also notes that some of the economic gains expected from liberalisation could in principle be directed towards offsetting these impacts. The WTO Doha Declaration in paragraph 6 "takes note" of voluntary environmental assessments done by WTO Members and recognises that WTO rules should not prevent countries from taking measures to protect human, animal or plant life or health as long as the measures are not disguised restrictions on or unjustified protection from international trade.

The latest SIA reports are available at http://www.sia-trade.org/wto/index.htm

ICTSD Reporting; "EU/WTO: Negotiations To Impact Badly On The Environment", FoE EUROPE BULLETIN, May 2005.

WTO BIOTECH CASE DELAYED UNTIL AUGUST

The chairman of the panel considering the complaint brought by the US, Canada and Argentina against the EU's alleged de facto moratorium on approvals of new genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has said that the panel will not issue its preliminary ruling until 5 August 2005. Chairman Christian Haberli told the parties to the dispute in mid-May that the delay was necessary owing to the large volume of information that the panel had to go through, including information from specialists and experts. The panel report was originally expected in September 2004 but has been repeatedly delayed by difficulties in choosing panel members and a decision to seek expert advice on technical and scientific issues raised in the dispute (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 10 September 2004). Haberli had told WTO Members in November 2004 that the panel was expected to deliver its final ruling to the parties by the end of June 2005.

ICTSD Reporting; "WTO Panel Notifies Further Delay For Ruling On Bioengineered Foods," WTO REPORTER, 19 May 2005.

EXPERTS IDENTIFY REGULATORY GAPS FOR INVASIVE ALIEN SPECIES

At the meeting of the Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Gaps and Inconsistencies in the International Regulatory Frameworks on Invasive Alien Species on 16-20 May in New Zealand, the world's leading experts on invasive alien species (IAS) identified missing components and lack of coherence in international regulatory framework in relation to IAS and discussed practical options to enhance policy coherence. The meeting was convened in response to a mandate adopted at the Seventh Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in February 2004 (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 20 February 2005). The major regulatory gap identified in the lead-up to the meeting was the lack of international standards related to invasive animal species that do not qualify as plant pests under the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC). The Office International des Epizooties (OIE, the World Organization for Animal Health) manages risks associated with animal diseases but does not include species that may be IASs. To address this, experts explored the option of including guidelines under existing international conventions such as the CBD. Alternatively, they raised the possibility of expanding the scope of the OIE or broadening the definition of animal diseases to include IAS. In addition to ensuring regulatory coordination, the Expert Group also stressed that capacity limitations in developing countries -- including financing, the infrastructure and skilled labour -- remained one of the major obstacles to effective implementation of regulations.

International trade in goods is one of the main gateways for the introduction of alien invasive species into ecosystems. However, IAS cause significant economic costs for agriculture, irrigation and hydropower, freshwater fisheries, forestry and health, and after habitat destruction represent the most important cause of biodiversity loss. According to IUCN, a sample of global economic costs of damage from IAS is $137 billion per year. Under WTO rules, measures to control the spread of IAS are covered by the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the World Trade Organisation (the SPS Agreement). The SPS Agreement encourages Members to use standards and guidelines identified by international standard-setting bodies, naming in particular the IPPC, the OIE, and the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

Documents from the meeting can be found at http://www.biodiv.org/doc/meeting.aspx?mtg=AISTEGGI-01

ICTSD reporting; " The Basics On Alien Invasive Species," IUCN.ORG, 26 May 2005.

BIODIVERSITY DAY MARKED BY NEW ECOSYSTEMS REPORT

The theme of the 22 May International Day for Biological Diversity, "Biodiversity: life insurance for our changing world", was reflected in speeches from world leaders and in a new study released for the occasion from the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) and the Convention on Biological Diversity. The study, entitled "Ecosystems and Human Well-being: A Biodiversity Synthesis", is the second of a set of seven studies from the MA that examine changes to the earth's ecosystems and their impacts on humans (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 1 April 2005). It suggests that human activities such as habitat conversion, climate change, pollution and over-exploitation of resources are largely to blame for alarming rates of biodiversity loss and are likely to continue or worsen in the future. It also notes that there may be both trade-offs and synergies between poverty and conservation targets. Trade-offs could include, for example, the adverse impact on biodiversity of rural road networks that are essential for economic development. Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Millenium Development Project (MDP), criticised the report's discussion of trade-offs, describing the idea as "naïve" and a "non-debate" because it could rekindle historical debates between environmentalists and those working in development. "All of us now agree that poor people depend on the health of ecosystems to survive," he noted, adding that environmental sustainability is on a par with the other Millenium Development Goals. Environmentalists and some of the writers of the MA-CBD report, however, have challenged the conclusions of the MDP report that said that significant increase in development aid and infrastructure spending was needed in developing countries to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 21 January 2005). They have suggested that some of the infrastructure investments or increased agricultural productivity recommended in the MDP report could have adverse impacts on biodiversity.

To access the MA-CBD report visit http://www.biodiv.org/doc/press/2005/pr-2005-05-18-ibd-en.pdf

"Protecting Biodiversity 'May Clash With Pursuit Of MDGs'," SCIDEV.NET, 19 May 2005; "World's Biodiversity Declining At An Alarming Rate," ENN, 23 May 2005.