The country could be one of the first 50 states to ratify the Nagoya Protocol, which will regulate the sharing of benefits arising from the use of biodiversity resources.

On May 5, during a workshop sponsored by the Office of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) in Costa Rica, it was announced that the country plans to sign the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization by the end of May.

The document was approved in Japan in October 2010, during the Tenth Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB), which, in turn, arose out of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit), held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992.

The Nagoya Protocol will create better conditions for the suppliers and users of the genetic resources of ecosystems by regulating access (for example, the countries must have clear standards and procedures governing the use of goods in protected areas) and the distribution of income generated by their use, when research is conducted outside the country.

Marta Lilliana Jiménez, Director of the Technical Office of the National Commission for the Management of Biodiversity (CONAGEBIO), also explained that the protocol calls for incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources and their genetic or biochemical components.

Jiménez led the workshop, held at IICA Headquarters in San Jose, which involved technical and legal specialists and decision-makers from government agencies, academia and research organizations in Costa Rica.

According to Javier Díaz, Ambassador for Climate Change and Global Environmental Issues of Costa Rica’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is possible that the ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Eduardo Ulibarri, will be given full powers to sign the protocol.

Only five nations have ratified it so far: Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Yemen, Zimbabwe and Rwanda.

Jiménez said that the Secretariat of the Nagoya Protocol is pressing for the document to be approved by July 2012 at the latest. It will come into force 90 days after the fiftieth country has ratified it. The next Conference of Parties to the CDB is scheduled to take place in India in October 2012 and the aim is for it to be the first meeting to be held with the protocol in place.

The states have until February 2012 to sign the agreement at the UN but Costa Rica plans to do so in May 2011, in order to present a bill for its approval to a special session of the nation’s Legislative Assembly scheduled for August (the Executive Branch prepares the agenda for such sessions). The President would then sign the bill into law and the United Nations would be notified.

Ambassador Díaz believes that if Costa Rica is one of the first 50 nations to ratify the Nagoya Protocol, it will send a clear signal to the international community regarding the country’s position on the protection of biodiversity and make it possible to push for a more favorable distribution of the benefits arising from their utilization.

National conditions

The focal point of the Secretariat of the Nagoya Protocol in Costa Rica is CONAGEBIO, which reports to the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications (MINAET).

Marta Lilliana Jiménez, of CONAGEBIO, said the 1998 Biodiversity Act still provided a good base for the implementation of the obligations assumed under the protocol, but the country also needed to prepare for other commitments once the agreement had been ratified, such as the creation of a clearinghouse on genetic resources and local verification points, to control the proper use of these goods.

The country also has to establish methods for technology transfer and create ways of regulating basic (scientific) research and commercial research.

Pedro Rocha, Coordinator of IICA’s Biotechnology and Biosafety Area, said the treaty obliged countries to consider how to assign economic value to genetic resources, but also created opportunities for Costa Rican companies to use the resources and generate wealth, which would be distributed among the communities themselves.

During the workshop, Jorge Cabrera, an attorney specializing in environmental issues, pointed out that ratifying the Nagoya Protocol would also have commercial implications and make the observance of international intellectual property rights obligatory.

During the meeting promoted by the IICA Office in Costa Rica, the secretary of the Biodiversity Coordination Network, Silvia Rodríguez, said the protocol might not be enough to increase the country’s access to the benefits accruing from the utilization of its natural resources, since it was the private sector that received them at present.

For more information, contact
pedro.rocha@iica.int