Biotech Updates

India to Host (COP/MOP 6) and (COP-11)

July 13, 2012

India is hosting the 11th meeting of the Conference of Parties (CoP-11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the 6th meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (COP/MOP 6) to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety being organized by the CBD Secretariat and Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Govt. of India. COP/MOP 6 will be held from 1 to 5 October and CoP-11 from 8 to 19 October 2012, respectively, and the high-level segment will be held from 17 to 19 October 2012.

The meetings will be spread over to various sessions and will have variety of formats, ranging from opening and closing plenary sessions, working groups, contact groups, workshops, discussions, keynote speeches, multimedia presentations, public lectures, debates, hands-on experiences etc. The provisional agenda of the CoP-MoP/6 includes: report of the compliance committee; operation and activities of the Biosafety Clearing-House; matters related to the financial mechanism and resources; cooperation with other organizations, conventions and initiatives; and report of the Executive Secretary. Substantive issues arising from the programme of work and past COP-MOP decisions include: handling packaging and identification of living modified organisms (LMOs); notification requirements; liability and redress; unintentional transboundary movements and emergency measures; risk assessment and risk management; socio-economic considerations; monitoring and reporting; and assessment and review.

The Conference will have participation from more than 100 countries, including several Ministers, UN, bilateral, multilateral agencies, private sector, financial institutions, academia, civil society organizations and others.

For details of the COP/MOP 6 visit http://www.cbd.int/doc/?meeting=MOP-06 and for details of CoP-11 visit http://www.cbd.int/doc/?meeting=cop-11