BRIDGES
Trade BioRes - SPECIAL CBD COP-8 UPDATE No. 2
28 March 2006
Table
of Contents
- Incentives
Debate at COP-8 Sees Clash Between Trade and Biodiversity Objectives
- Trade @ COP-8 - What to look out for...
- COP-8 Events & Resources
NOTE
TO SUBSCRIBERS
During COP-8, BRIDGES
Trade BioRes will provide periodical updates on news, activities and negotiations
related to trade, sustainable development and biodiversity (available
at http://www.ictsd.org/biores).
INCENTIVES
DEBATE AT COP-8 SEES CLASH BETWEEN TRADE AND BIODIVERSITY OBJECTIVES
At the 8th Conference of the Parties (COP-8) to the Convention on Biological
Diversity in Curitiba from 20 to 31 March, Working Group I kicked off
the second week of negotiations with a discussion on how to address perverse
and positive incentive measures. Trade concerns continued to dominate
the debate, leading to rigid positions among Parties with little room
for movement on substantive issues. To avoid a repeat of controversies
already witnessed at COP-7 and the meetings of the CBD's Subsidiary Body
on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA), Working Group
Chair Matthew Jebb of Ireland suggested focusing discussions on the process
to prepare for the mandated review of the incentives work programme at
COP-9.
The COP had been asked
to address four issues forwarded by SBSTTA-10 and 11: (1) draft proposals
to remove or mitigate perverse incentives, (2) a chair's text on the application
of positive incentives, (3) establishing a preparatory process for the
COP-9 review, and (4) and the use of valuation tools. Positive incentives
commonly refer to economic, legal or institutional measures designed to
encourage beneficial activities (such as such as agricultural land set-aside
schemes or conservation easements) while perverse incentives can induce
unsustainable behaviour that destroys biodiversity, often as unanticipated
side-effects of other policies.
Procedural versus
substantive negotiations
The debate on incentives
pitched Australia, Argentina, Brazil and New Zealand -- all major agriculture
liberalisers in the WTO -- against the EU, with just a few interventions
from other countries. Australia pointed to the clear link between incentive
measures and trade policy, notably with regard to agricultural subsidies,
stressing that they would continue to oppose what they saw as efforts
to use the incentives mandate to provide subsidies "under the disguise"
of biodiversity conservation. Australia added that they saw no point in
re-opening discussions on perverse incentives at COP-8 based on a paper
that they regarded as "fundamentally flawed". Argentina echoed
these sentiments, warning against designing a work programme built more
on commercial than environmental interests. The two countries, together
with Brazil and New Zealand, supported the Chair's proposal to focus on
procedural issues at COP-8.
The EU -- which has
been pushing for space under WTO rules to provide subsidies to address
non-trade concerns such as environmental protection -- would like to finalise
the proposals on perverse and positive incentives at COP-8, which should
guide national, regional and international activities on a voluntary basis.
The EU pointed to the reform of its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as
a step forward in the EU's and national action plans for biodiversity
by integrating environmental goals in agriculture-related decision-making.
Trade as a positive incentive?
In the context of positive
incentives, Peru pointed to trade as a strategic instrument for biodiversity
conservation and sustainable use. To this end, they stressed the need
to provide incentives through the creation of markets for ecosystem services
and sustainable biodiversity products, including through the ongoing negotiations
on environmental goods and services under Paragraph 31(iii) of the Doha
mandate of trade negotiations at the WTO.
In its intervention,
the civil society group International Federation for Animal Welfare (IFAW)
took issue with the assumption that trade could be an incentive for achieving
the CBD's objectives, pointing to historical evidence that commercialisation
had not usually been helpful in this regard.
Next steps
The Chair offered to
develop a status report together with the CBD Secretariat by Tuesday,
compiling areas of general agreement and conflict with regard to perverse
and positive incentives. This report would serve to highlight the areas
where work still needed to be done in order to prepare the ground for
the COP-9 review. The forthcoming draft text will also include a proposal
by Australia on the preparatory process for the COP-9 review, which calls
on the CBD Executive Secretary to compile available information on the
work programmes, and requests Parties to submit national experiences on
challenges and successes with existing activities related to incentives.
The EU supported the proposal to gather national experiences, which they
said should also address linkages with other initiatives and options for
advancing the work programme.
Additional Resources
Incentive Measures
and WTO Rules, ICTSD COP-8 Biodiversity and Trade Briefings, March 2006,
http://www.trade-environment.org/page/ictsd/resource.htm#COP8
Documents of COP-8
are available at http://www.biodiv.org/meetings/cop8mop3/cop-08.shtml
Daily coverage of COP-8
is provided by IISD Linkages, http://www.iisd.ca/biodiv/cop8/
TRADE @ COP-8:
ACCESS AND BENEFITS-SHARING, INCENTIVE MEASURES
Among the issues on
the table at the Eighth
Conference of the Parties (COP-8) to the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD), to be held from 20-31 March in Curitiba, Brazil, countries
will be discussing how to proceed in the discussions on a possible international
regime to govern access to genetic resources and the sharing of benefits
derived from their use (ABS). While several developing countries are likely
to try to use COP-8 as an opportunity to build political momentum for
the negotiations on the international ABS regime, most developed countries
have been less enthusiastic about the regime. Parties to the CBD will
also try to unblock stalled discussions on positive and perverse incentives
in preparation for the mandated review at COP-9.
ABS talks need
renewed mandate
While the creation
of a draft text for the proposed international regime at the last meeting
of the Ad Hoc Open Ended Working Group on Access to Genetic Resources
and Benefit-Sharing in February 2006 (see Bridges
Trade BioRes, 3 February 2006) appeared to suggest some progress in
the negotiations, more sceptical observers have predicted that several
more years of negotiations might be necessary. They point to the numerous
brackets still contained in the text, and the fact that the draft text
does not reflect many of the options presented at previous Working Group
meetings.
At COP-8, Parties will be asked to reconvene the Working Group and determine
the Group's work schedule "so as to expedite and facilitate the early
elaboration, negotiation and conclusion of the international regime on
access and benefit sharing". Parties will also consider proposals
on different areas that the Working Group would be requested to focus
on, among them measures to ensure compliance with prior informed consent
(PIC) and mutually agreed terms (MAT) provisions, including the issue
of disclosure of origin/source/legal provenance. In addition, they will
decide on the creation of an ad-hoc technical expert group to elaborate
options for form, intent, practicality, feasibility and costs of an international
certificate of origin/source/legal provenance.
Opinions have been
divided on the extent to which the COP will actually enter into substantive
debates on ABS or will rather stick to procedural discussions. Among the
key questions for the negotiating process will be whether the COP will
appoint a permanent Chair for the negotiations or continue to operate
through the Working Group. Some have raised concerns that the chair of
the Working Group is usually not appointed until the first day of the
meeting and therefore is not able to carry out preparatory activities
before or after the meeting. However, given that some countries continue
to question whether there is actually a need for a negotiated international
regime, they may resist the establishment of a process that could be seen
as recognising the need for negotiations.
At the same time, the high political weight given to the issue by several
developing countries, including Brazil as Chair of the COP, could facilitate
informal talks at the meeting. COP-8 Chair, Brazilian Environment Minister
Marina Silva, highlighted the political capital invested in the issue
when she noted that "we are going to work hard in order for the international
regime to be binding, and so that it is not understood as a tool to facilitate
access, but to ensure protection and sustainable use and the distribution
of benefits". However, developed countries are likely to try to throw
sand in the gears of this process by pushing for a stronger focus on a
gap analysis and the divergences in opinions on the current draft text
in the Working Group.
New approach to
incentives needed
Parties will also
examine progress on the work plan on incentive measures, adopted at COP-5
in 2000, most notably texts on perverse and positive incentives forwarded
by the tenth and eleventh meetings of the CBD Subsidiary Body on Scientific,
Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) respectively. Concerns have
been raised by several Parties that debate about the WTO-compatibility
of measures adopted under Article 11 of the CBD have crowded out other
issues that rightfully belong in CBD discussions on incentives. Article
11 of the Convention says that Parties shall "adopt economically
and socially sound measures that act as incentives for the conservation
and sustainable use of components of biological diversity". Incentives
can be direct or indirect; positive, negative or perverse; focus on the
community or national level; and may involve cash or in kind inducements
to conserve biological diversity, use biological resources sustainably
and equitably share the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.
While CBD discussions
on incentives are intended to encourage Parties to identify policies that
have, or could have, the effect of inducing actors to achieve or not compromise
the objectives of the CBD, in practice discussions have to a large extent
focused on concerns over agricultural subsidies. The potential for such
subsidies to be included in the definition of either 'positive' or 'perverse'
incentives was the subject of intense discussions at SBSTTA-10, which
in turn led SBSTTA-11 to suggest changes in the CBD process on incentives
in order to more carefully deal with the politically controversial elements,
including those relating to trade. These elements will be examined in
the in-depth review of the Convention's work on incentive measures, which
is to begin shortly after COP-8 for COP-9, on which COP-8 has been requested
to elaborate terms of reference, and to identify the best mechanisms to
drive preparatory work for the major review and elements of a revised
work programme.
Some Parties have
suggested that encouraging trade in biodiversity-related goods and services,
such as by drawing connections to WTO negotiations on environmental goods
and services (EGS, see Bridges Trade
BioRes, 3 March 2006), could act as a positive incentive for the sustainable
use of biodiversity. Others, however, such as China, Argentina, New Zealand
and Brazil, have suggested that the CBD should avoid stepping on the toes
of the WTO, which is in addition to the work on EGS also engages in talks
on regulating agricultural and fisheries subsidies. Some civil society
groups have voiced scepticism that trade can act as a positive incentive
for biodiversity, arguing instead that most incentives for increased trade
-- for example, cuts to tariffs or reductions in non-tariff barriers --
have perverse, adverse effects on biodiversity.
Additional Resources
The CBD Web Portal
for COP-8 is available here.
IUCN Position papers
on COP-8 topics are available here.
"A new approach
to Incentives under the Convention on Biological Diversity," by IUCN,
is available here.
ICTSD Reporting; "'Shark
Parks?' Oceans said in need of protection," REUTERS, 15 March 2006;
"Brazil to Press for Global Biodiversity Regime," IPS, 14 March
2006.
COP-8
Events & Resources
Global Biodiversity
Forum at COP-8
24-25 March, Curitiba,
Brazil: GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY FORUM. The Forum will be held just prior to
the high-level segment of the eighth meeting of the Conference of the
Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD CoP8) with a focus
on the 2010 biodiversity target. Organised by IUCN's Countdown2010 initiative,
the proposed workshop streams are financing biodiversity action for achieving
the 2010 targets; measuring progress toward the 2010 targets; thinking
global and acting local - taking 2010 forward; and 2010 for 2015 - Reaffirming
the role of biodiversity in achieving MDGs. For further information contact
Laurence Christen, tel: +41 22 999-0223; fax: 999-0025; email: gbf@iucn.org;
Internet: http://www.gbf.ch/
ICTSD side-event
Tuesday 28 March,
18h30-20h15: DISCLOSURE
REQUIREMENTS IN PATENT APPLICATIONS: A TOOL AGAINST MISAPPROPRIATION OR
AN OBSTACLE TO INNOVATION? Organised by ICTSD, ABS Governance Programme
(UNU-IAS, IDDRI, CPDR) and Chatham House
IUCN side-events
Monday, 20 March,
13h15-15h00: THE ABS PROJECT -- PROMOTING EQUITABLE, EFFICIENT AND ENFORCEABLE
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ABS REGIME. Organised by the IUCN Environmental
Law Centre.
Monday, 20 March,
18h30-20h15: UPDATE ON HIGH SEAS AND DEEP SEABED ISSUES. Organised by
IUCN.
Monday, 20 March,
18h30-20h: TRANSBOUNDARY PROTECTED AREAS & THE CBD PROGRAMME OF WORK
ON PROTECTED AREAS. LAUNCH OF 2006 WORLD DATABASE ON PROTECTED AREAS.
Organised by IUCN.
Tuesday, 21 March,
13h15-15h00: UPDATE ON HIGH SEAS AND DEEP SEABED ISSUES. Organised by
IUCN.
Wednesday, 22 March,
18h30-20h15: PRESENTATION OF AN UPCOMING 2006 EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON INTEGRATING
BIODIVERSITY INTO DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION. Organised by the IUCN Regional
Office For Europe.
Monday, 27 March,
13h15-15h00: MEASURING PROGRESS TOWARDS THE 2010 TARGET. Organised by
IUCN
Wednesday, 29 March,
13h15-15h00: CUSTOMARY LAW, TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND THE INTERNATIONAL
REGIME ON ABS. Organised by IUCN.
Wednesday, 29 March,
13h15-15h00: GUIDELINES FOR IUCN ENGAGEMENT WITH THE PRIVATE SECTOR. Organised
by IUCN.
Other trade-related
side-events
For a complete list
of COP-8 side-events, visit http://www.biodiv.org/register/side-events/list.aspx?mtg=COP-08
Monday, 20 March,
18h30-20h15: EARLY LESSONS LEARNT FROM THE ACCESS AND BENEFIT SHARING
MANAGEMENT TOOL, DEVELOPED BY IISD AND SECRÉTARIAT D'ETAT À
L'ÉCONOMIE, SUISSE (SECO). Organised by the International Institute
for Sustainable Development.
Monday, 20 March,
18h30-20h15: ABS AND TK: USING CUSTOMARY LAW TO DEVELOP PRACTICAL MECHANISMS
FOR EQUITABLE BENEFIT-SHARING. Organised by the International Institute
For Environment And Development, Asosiacion Andes and the Foundation For
International Environmental Law And Development.
Tuesday, 21 March,
13h15-15h00: TERMINATOR TECHNOLOGY - POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF GENETIC USE
RESTRICTION TECHNOLOGIES (GURTS). Organised by the Ban Terminator Campaign.
Tuesday, 21 March,
13h15-15h00: THE ROLE OF BIODIVERSITY OFFSETS IN CONSERVATION: AN OPEN
ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION. Organised by Forest Trends.
Tuesday, 21 March,
18h30-20h15: REPORT BY WIPO ON RECENT PROGRESS OF ONGOING WORK ON IP,
GENETIC RESOURCES AND TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE. Organised by the World Intellectual
Property Organization.
Tuesday, 21 March,
18h30-20h15: ACCESS AND BENEFIT SHARING AND FREE PRIOR INFORMED CONSENT.
Organised by the International Alliance of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples
of the Tropical Forests.
Wednesday, 22 March,
13h15-15h00: BIOTRADE: INCENTIVES FOR BIODIVERSITY BUSINESS. Organised
by the UNCTAD Biotrade Initiative.
Thursday, 23 March,
13h15-15h00: RIGHTS TO TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES
FOR FOOD AND AGRICULTURE IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE WORLD TRADE ORDER. A
LEGAL, ECONOMIC AND SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS. Organised by the Swiss Agency
For Development And Cooperation/ University Of Berne, World Trade Institute.
Thursday, 30 March,
13h15-15h00: WORK IN THE WTO ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TRIPS AGREEMENT
AND THE CBD. Organised by the World Trade Organization.
COP-8
RESOURCES
Daily
coverage of COP-8
EARTH
NEGOTIATIONS BULLETIN for web coverage, daily and summary reports and
for reports on side events: http://www.iisd.ca/2002/wssd/
EARTHWIRE/WSSD:
http://www.earthwire.org/wssd
British
Council instant news and comments from the World Summit: http://www.dailysummit.net/
EARTH
TIMES daily web coverage: Internet: http://www.earthtimes.org/
VIRTUAL
EXHIBIT for live video webcasts from WSSD: http://www.virtualexhibit.net
COP-8
Resources On Trade And SD
ICTSD
documents on trade and sustainable development are available at http://www.ictsd.org/pubs/,
including past issues of the monthly review BRIDGES Between Trade and
Sustainable Development (English, German, French and Spanish), which provides
regular updates and analysis of current developments in trade and sustainable
development. For a collection of resources on trade, biodiversity and
sustainable development, visit http://www.trade-environment.org
IUCN
POSITION PAPERS FOR CBD COP-8. By IUCN - The World Conservation Union,
February 2006. These short IUCN position papers explore topics including
biological diversity of dry and sub-humid lands; access and benefit-sharing;
Article 8(j); the Global Initiative on communication, education and public
awareness; the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment; Indicators; forest biological
diversity; marine biodiversity conservation; and protected areas.
Electronic
Resources
Official
COP-8 website: http://www.biodiv.org/meetings/cop8mop3/cop-08.shtml
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