The Fourth Meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit-sharing of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity closed today in Granada, with a very significant advance in the negotiations for the establishment of an international regime to regulate this matter, including the consideration of an International Certificate of Origin.

All the countries represented at the meeting praised the results achieved, as well as the fundamental role played by Spain in the process. The Minister of the Environment, Cristina Narbona, has also been invited to present the results of the conference at the next Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, which will take place in Curitiba, Brazil, from 20 to 31 March.

Since last Monday, January 30, delegates from 150 countries, as well as representatives of indigenous communities, NGOs and other organizations, have been working intensively. After difficult negotiations, everyone congratulated themselves on the progress made in this fourth working meeting, which was chaired by Professor Margarita Clemente, vice-rector of the University of Córdoba and expert in this field.

The recommendation to the COP includes an annex setting out the basic structure of the international regime on access and benefit-sharing, which should be discussed in the future with a view to its adoption. This document is a major step forward from the previous deadlock for many years and is, in fact, the first draft of what such a regime should contain.

This regime should develop one of the three objectives of the Convention, access to genetic resources and equitable benefit-sharing. In turn, it will allow a better application of the other two objectives, the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, which will lead to countries rich in genetic resources valuing them as a potential source of economic resources. At the meeting, it was also agreed to enable greater participation of representatives of indigenous peoples and local communities in discussions of the Convention, especially those dealing with the protection of traditional knowledge.