Nagoya Protocol Has 21 Signatories

Eight new parties have signed the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity, joining the other 13 signatories. The signing ceremony was held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York last May 11, 2011, during the Ministerial Segment of the 19^th session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.

The latest signatories were Guatemala, Indonesia, India, Japan, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland and Tunisia. The first set of signatories were comprised of Colombia, Yemen, Algeria, Brazil, Mexico, Rwanda, Ecuador, the Central African Republic, the Seychelles, Mali, Sudan, Panama, and Peru. The Protocol will only take effect 90 days after the 50^th member has submitted its signature. This is expected to happen in time for the 11^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 11), scheduled for fall 2012.

The Nagoya Protocol was developed to advance "the objective of the Convention on the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources by providing greater legal certainty and transparency for both providers and users of genetic resources."

Read the media release at http://www.cbd.int/doc/press/2011/pr-2011-05-11-nagoya-en.pdf.