The Minister of the Environment, Cristina Narbona, has intervened, in Granada, at the opening ceremony of two meetings of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity related to indigenous populations and access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing, which will take place from today until February 3.

With the Minister of the Environment, at the opening table, the Executive Secretary of the Convention, Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf; the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Leire Pajín; the Minister of the Environment of the Junta de Andalucía, Fuensanta Coves and the mayor of Granada, José Torres.

These are the Fourth Meeting of the Open-ended Working Group on Biodiversity-Related Traditional Knowledge of Indigenous or Local Communities (Art. 8j Group) and the Fourth Meeting of the Ad Hoc Group on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit-sharing (ABS Group). These international meetings, organized by Spain, are part of the activities carried out in view of the Conference of the Parties (COP 8) to the Convention on Biodiversity, which will take place in Brazil in March 2006.

The general objectives of these meetings, in which some 600 delegates from more than 150 countries and intergovernmental organizations and NGOs will participate, are: to respect the traditional knowledge on biodiversity of indigenous and local populations and to promote the fair and equitable sharing of biological genetic resources.