Nigeria and several other Parties yet to ratify the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilisation have the opportunity to do so at the upcoming Treaty Event 2015, being held in conjunction with the General Debate of the seventieth session of the United Nations General Assembly, from 28 September to 1 October 2015. The Treaty Event is an effective means for promoting wider participation of states in the multilateral treaty framework, and also serves as an advocacy tool to raise awareness and appreciation of international law among the general public.
Nigeria signed the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing on February 1, 2012, but she is yet to ratify the treaty. Several other nations have neither signed nor ratified the treaty.
However, two new ratifications this month to the Nagoya Protocol brings the total number of ratifications to the treaty under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to 66. There are a total of 92 signatories.
Since its entry into force on 12 October 2014, the Nagoya Protocol has received 11 additional ratifications from the following countries: Cambodia, Croatia, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Liberia, Mauritania and the Republic of the Congo. The ratifications come from diverse regions of the world indicating broad support for this treaty.
“Following the recent ratifications by Croatia and Cuba, we expect a number of additional ratifications and accessions to the Protocol in the coming weeks as a number of countries are finalising their national processes,” said Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity. “We hope to achieve our target of reaching well over 100 Parties by the second meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting to the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol (COP-MOP 2) in December 2016. To achieve this goal, we count on the support of Parties and our partners to promote ratification of the Protocol.”
Increasing the number of Parties to the Nagoya Protocol remains key in achieving Aichi Biodiversity Target 16 which provides that “by 2015, the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilisation is in force and operational, consistent with national legislation”. The impact of the Protocol in creating greater transparency and legal certainty for providers and users of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge will increase as more countries join the Protocol and undertake to implement its obligations.
By promoting the use of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, and by strengthening the opportunities for fair and equitable sharing of benefits from their use, the Protocol will create incentives to conserve biodiversity, sustainably use its components, and further enhance the contribution of biodiversity to sustainable development and human well-being.
