CBD’s Geneva meetings: Benefit sharing on traditional knowledge & digital sequence information on agenda

Delegates from different countries are gathered in Geneva to discuss crucial issues related to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its tenet on fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from genetic resources. 

The members are negotiating the terms of Article 8 (j) of CBD. This Article ensures that member countries respect, preserve and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities used to conserve and sustainably use biological diversity. The Article also promotes the wider use of this knowledge, innovations and practices while ensuring equitable sharing of the benefits arising from their use.

At the 12th meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Inter-sessional Working Group on Article 8 (j) and Related Provisions of the Convention, member countries are negotiating the terms of a new work plan for Article 8 (j). The discussions have been initiated in response to the call by governments at the 15th Convention of Parties (COP15) to CBD in December of 2022, to ensure that the work plan for Article 8 (j) is aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. 

The secretariat has identified four indicators that are being discussed now. These include the trends of linguistic diversity and numbers of speakers of indigenous languages, trends in land-use change and land tenure in the traditional territories of indigenous and local communities, trends in the practice of traditional occupations, and trends in the degree to which traditional knowledge and practices are respected.  

The Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Article 8 (j) and Related Provisions of the Convention was established during COP4 in 1998 to help countries implement Article 8 (j). Its programme of work was approved in 2000 and in 2010, the plan was updated for the period of 2010–20.

The issue of fair and equitable sharing of benefits is also being discussed at the first meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Benefit-sharing from the Use of Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources. Discussions on this aspect have been necessitated as gene sequences are progressively replacing the need to access physical biological samples of genetic resources. This has implications for CBD’s rules on access and benefit-sharing.

At COP15, it was decided that a multilateral fund would be created to ensure that benefits from their use are shared with the owners of the resource, and the working group is trying to come to a consensus on 16 different issues, clustered into five groups, that have been identified by the secretariat. 

The members will come to a consensus on who will contribute to the fund, how the funds would be disbursed, how non-monetary benefit would be shared, governance of this fund, and how this system would be related to other approaches and systems on benefit sharing. 

Just before these two working group meetings, indigenous peoples and local communities, women and youth and relevant stakeholders got together at Geneva on November 9 and 10. The groups wanted systems to be set so that the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is implemented through a human rights based and whole of society approach.

The groups also discussed the role of languages in the intergenerational transmission of traditional knowledge, innovations and practices, financing mechanisms for biodiversity conservation for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, securing land and tenure rights for the guardians of the world’s ecosystems, and using Indigenous Traditional Territories as an alternative pathway to Protected Areas and Other Area Based Conservation Measures

The recommendations made at the meetings, scheduled till November 16, would be presented to the 26th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical, and Technological Advice to be held in May 2024 and then at the 16th Conference of the Parties scheduled in 2024.

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