Forum for Pacific Workshop participants

Dear Participants,

     Welcome to the discussion forum for participants of the sub-regional workshop on developing capacity for national border controls on living modified organisms in Pacific small island developing States. The workshop will take place at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Suva, Fiji, from 27 to 29 March 2017.

      The agenda for the workshop is available at: https://www.cbd.int/doc/?meeting=CPHTPIWS-2017-01.   

      You are invited to post messages on any matter which may be of concern or interest to participants preparing for this workshop. 

Best regards,

Paola Scarone
CBD Secretariat

Due to lack of exprience on Biosaftey, what are the basic requirements for monitoring and controlling transboundry movements of LMO's ? i.e approval procedures, information exchange, requirements for testing and detection, if applicable, and access to necessary resources;

Thank you for your question.

We invite you to look at the E-learning modules, particularly Module 1,  for an introduction to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. Many of your other concerns will be covered at the workshop.

Kind regards,

Paola

Dear Participants,

      All participants should have received information by e-mail regarding preparatory activities for the workshop. For ease of reference, the information is copied below:

The main objective of the workshop is to introduce Customs and border-control officers to the requirements of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety regarding the documentation, handling, transport, packaging and identification of living modified organisms (LMOs) as well as to sampling and detection techniques and methodologies for LMOs. It also aims at facilitating the exchange of information and national experiences on the implementation of the identification and documentation requirements under the Protocol. The agenda and annotations to the agenda are available on the website of the Secretariat at: https://www.cbd.int/doc/?meeting=CPHTPIWS-2017-01.   

1) Preparation of presentation
A session of the workshop will be dedicated to presentations by participants. In this context, we would like to ask you to prepare a Power Point Presentation of 15 minutes per country on national experiences with transboundary movements of LMOs and the legal, policy and institutional framework within which border controls on LMOs take place. You are invited to coordinate with other participants from your country, copied in this e-mail, to present one presentation only per country. The presentation should follow the structure below:
• Legal and policy framework applying to transboundary movements of LMOs in your country (applicable national laws and policies).
 If these frameworks do not apply to LMOs, please briefly present the rules applying to regular shipments of e.g. corn or soy intended for (1) food, feed or for processing, and (2) for planting;
• Institutions involved in transboundary movements of LMOs, including, where applicable, competent national authority on biosafety or LMOs and border control institutions, and their responsibilities and involvement;
• Collaborative arrangements between different institutions involved;
• Experience with transboundary movements of LMOs in your country, focusing on: applicable requirements, approval procedures, information exchange, requirements for testing and detection, if applicable, and access to necessary resources;
• Description of national awareness and capacities for border controls on LMOs, including strengths, gaps, needs and recommendations (preferably in bullet points);
On the basis of the national presentations, participants will be developing a needs and gaps analysis.
           
2) E-learning modules
In preparation for the workshop, we would like to invite you to take a look at the E-learning modules that the Secretariat has developed for customs and border control officials and to complete Module 1 and its evaluation. The E-learning modules are available through the following link: https://scbd.unssc.org/course/index.php?categoryid=8. You will be prompted to provide your username and password. Please enter the sign-in details created for your Biosafety Clearing-House(BCH)/CBD account. Please note that during the workshop we will jointly do the remaining modules. In order to receive a certificate of completion, you are required to have already completed Module 1 prior to the workshop.

3) Discussion forum
This discussion forum has  been established to enable participants to communicate on matters that are of general interest to other participants of the workshop. For example, participants may wish to share questions in relation to the preparation of the powerpoint presentation, or on the workshop agenda. The forum is restricted to workshop participants.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We look forward to meeting you and to a successful workshop!

Kind regards,

Paola