----- forwarded message ----- Date: Sat, 07 Apr 2001 16:49:51 +0200 From: info <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Canada to Sign International Biosafety Protocol ----- forwarded message ----- Subject: [gaia-l] Canada to Sign International Biosafety Protocol Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2001 21:30:00 -0300 From: "Mark Graffis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Environment ENS -- Environment News Service OTTAWA, Canada, April 6, 2001 (ENS) - An agreement to regulate the movement of genetically modified organisms across international borders is a step closer to fruition after Canada announced yesterday it would sign the international protocol. Canada is one of the world's leading producers, exporters and importers of living modified organisms, such as corn, canola, potatoes and soybeans. Yesterday, Environment Minister David Anderson announced Canada would sign the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. The goal of the Cartagena Protocol, negotiated under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, is to protect biodiversity while permitting trade of living modified plants, animals and micro-organisms. Biodiversity is defined under the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity as the "variability among living organisms from all sources." Recognizing public concerns over genetically modified organisms, some 177 member governments of the UN Biological Diversity convention have spent years discussing practical steps for minimizing the potential risks of biotechnology. Genetically modified (GM) organisms have had their genetic material altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating or natural recombination. By genetically engineering an organism, individual genes can be selected and transferred from organism into another, sometimes between non-related species. Food companies might transfer useful genes into plants that lack them to make them more resistant to disease or pesticide. But some scientists and non-governmental offices such as Greenpeace are concerned about genetic engineering's potential side effects. Their concerns that GM crops and GM food could create allergies, harm biodiversity and eliminate indigenous species have raised awareness among consumers who are increasingly demanding tougher laws regarding labeling and international trade. The protocol signed in the Columbian city of Cartagena in 1999 and adopted in Montreal, Canada, in 2000 attempts to ensure that GM organisms are handled and transferred safely across borders. Eighty six countries have signed the protocol and two have ratified it - Bulgaria and Trinidad and Tobago. The protocol will come into force 90 days after 50 countries ratify it, which is likely within two or three years according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which administers the Secretariat for the 1992 Biodiversity Convention, under which the protocol was negotiated. "Canada already has a domestic regulatory framework for biotechnology products," said Anderson. "Our signature to the protocol demonstrates our continued commitment to international cooperation and builds on our domestic and international actions to protect the environment and human health." "We will take a leadership role in achieving a protocol that is workable and protects the environment without causing unnecessary trade disruptions," said Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief. Since the late 1980s, a domestic science based regulatory system has overseen and approved the release of more than 100 genetically modified organisms into the Canadian environment. According to Greenpeace, GM canola in Canada is developing into a major weed problem, which requires the use of conventional toxic herbicides for removal. The group claims that the U.S. has spent more than a billion dollars trying to recall potentially allergenic GM Starlink corn, which has contaminated 430 million bushels of harvest. Canada will sign the international protocol on April 19 at a meeting of the Commission on Sustainable Development at the United Nations in New York. Anderson said the government would consider ratification of the protocol based on progress achieved in international discussions. The country has played a key role in developing the protocol. It helped broker the consensus between exporter countries and importer countries in the final negotiations prior to the protocol being adopted in January 2000 in Montréal. Developing countries will be helped to implement the protocol through the Global Environment Facility (GEF), which is funded by donor countries including Canada. For example, UNEP will implement a $39 million GEF project that will help 100 countries prepare National Biosafety Frameworks. The three and half year project will cultivate information exchanges and best practices among developing countries and countries with economies in transition, through a series of global and regional workshops. Canada acknowledged that several issues must be clarified before it and most other countries ratify the protocol. These issues include * a system for information sharing, including the Biosafety Clearing House * a review of international rules and standards relating to the handling, transport, packaging and identification of genetically modified organisms * options for establishing a compliance regime * facilitating decision making by countries that may wish to import GM organisms Under the protocol, governments will decide whether or not to accept imports of GM organisms on the basis of risk assessments. These scientific assessments are to be undertaken according to recognized risk assessment techniques. Because the protocol is based on the precautionary approach, importers can decide not to accept imports of GM organisms "if there is a lack of scientific certainty due to insufficient scientific information and knowledge on whether or not the organism poses a risk to the environment or human health," said UNEP.
