The Secretary General for Territory and Biodiversity, Antonio Serrano, has participated in Granada, in the opening ceremony of the meeting on access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity to promote access and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from genetic resources.

Together with the meeting held last week on traditional knowledge of indigenous communities related to biodiversity, this is part of the preparatory activities for the Conference of the Parties (COP 8) to this Convention, which will take place in Brazil between March 27 and 29.

This meeting, organized by Spain, through the Ministries of Environment and Foreign Affairs, and through an agreement with the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, is attended by more than 600 delegates from some 150 countries, as well as representatives of intergovernmental organizations –such as UNEP, FAO, WIPO and WTO–, governmental, non-governmental, indigenous communities, industry, etc., as well as the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Spain, due to its rich biodiversity, and its thriving biotechnology industry, is a country that acts both as a user and a provider of genetic resources. That is why our country has a great interest in the implementation of the mandate of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in 2002, to negotiate the “establishment of an international regime to promote and safeguard effectively the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources”.