6-Regulation: UNEP buys support for Cartagena Protocol say anonymous critics and former CBD secretary

[GENET <genetnl@xs4all.be>]

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TITLE:  UNEP "Buys Support for Cartagena," Say Critics
SOURCE: Nature Biotechnology 20 (3), p 205, by John Hodgson
        sent by AgBioView, USA
DATE:   March 2002

------------------ archive: http://www.gene.ch/genet.html ------------------


UNEP "Buys Support for Cartagena," Say Critics

Cambridge, UK. As part of a continuing program of support for the Cartagena 
Protocol on BioSafety, worth around $100 million, the United Nations 
Environment Program (UNEP; Nairobi, Kenya) has launched a $38.4 million 
scheme to help establish up to 100 biosafety administrative bodies in 
developing nations. The program is funded by the UN's Global Environmental 
Facility (New York, NY) and aims, ostensibly, to prepare developing nations 
for the day that the Protocol comes into effect. However, critics see the 
new program as little more than a cynical attempt to buy support for the 
Protocol, thereby enabling it to pass into law. The real intent, they say, 
is to muddy the waters of international trade rules and to establish 
barriers to trade in GMOs.

Klaus Toepfer says the new scheme will enable developing nations to have 
the skills and systems in place for assessing imports, which is "crucial to 
the success" of the Protocol. But some commentators say the scheme is just 
a way of making sure that nations ratify the protocol.

The Cartagena Protocol is part of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 
described by Klaus Toepfer, the executive director of UNEP, as "an attempt 
to reconcile [...] trade and environmental protection issues." He explains 
that the Protocol is the first legal environmental treaty to 
institutionalize "the precautionary approach," under which a given nation 
can act on the assumption that biological diversity (in this case) is 
threatened by GMOs. At the administrative core of the Protocol is the 
"advanced informed agreement procedure;" this puts the onus for risk 
evaluation on nations exporting GMOs and allows importing countries to 
decide whether to accept the shipment (Nat. Biotechnol. 18, 17, 2000). 
Toepfer says that making sure that developing nations have the skills and 
systems in place for assessing imports is "crucial to the success" of the 
Protocol. "This is why this multimillion dollar capacity building project 
is so important," he stresses. However, critics say that UNEP's progra 
[...missing, GENET...] ion project," and for similar programs funded 
through other UN agencies, could be in excess of $5 million.)

The UNEP program has also been criticized for being premature. One US 
industry spokesperson, who declined to be named, suggested that the 
attitude of the staff and consultants behind the UNEP program could be 
summed up as: "Before we have any biotech, we have to have biosafety." 
"This is clearly putting the cart before the horse," he says. An official 
with another UN agency pointed out the practical implications of preemptive 
training and the establishment of legal and administrative instruments: 
"You can run courses one after the other but if you have no formal legal 
structures [without the Protocol itself], or no activity in import or 
export, then the trained people are just in suspended animation." However, 
Christopher Briggs, the manager of the UNEP project, rejects this view. 
"What we are doing is hardly preemptive," he says. "Countries need guidance 
in understanding a Protocol that will pass into law within a couple of 
years."

Briggs also refutes what is the most serious charge leveled by UNEP's 
critics: that the "capacity building" program is just a way of making sure 
that nations ratify the Protocol. Because the Cartagena Protocol regulates 
the exchange of GM materials between nations, it is highly likely to come 
into conflict with existing global trade rules, notably those of World 
Trade Organisation (WTO; Geneva, Switzerland). WTO rules permit trade 
restrictions based only on concerns that are demonstrably scientific rather 
than those based on presumption or precaution as under the Cartagena 
Protocol. Some commentators fear that protectionist nations and trading 
blocs will use the Cartagena Protocol as a means of circumventing their 
obligations under WTO.

Juma, for instance, claims that "The main focus of the project is to rally 
ratification for a protocol that does not seem to enjoy much support." The 
Protocol will only come into force when ratified by 50 nations. So far only 
10 countries, out of 107 signatories, have done so. With a clear reference 
to those European politicians and legislators who have been pushing forward 
the precautionary principle, Juma argues that "those countries that 
provided the conceptual foundation of the protocol should show leadership 
by ratifying instead of resorting to financial enticement."

Briggs concedes that there is some connection between eligibility for funds 
under the UNEP program and ratification of the Protocol. To qualify for 
funding, countries must express "an earnest intent to ratify," he explains. 
He argues though that expression of intent and the ratification itself are 
under separate control: the intent may be expressed by officials or 
ministries while ratification is a sovereign issue and can be decided only 
by a nation's parliament. Julian Kinderlerer of the University of Sheffield 
(Sheffield, UK) - who was seconded to UNEP to run the pilot scheme that 
preceded the current program and is now acting as a consultant - says that 
the program and its available funds have a "prioritizing" effect. "Its not 
buying ratifications," he says, "but it is, perhaps, an incentive for 
countries to think harder about the implications of the Protocol."



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