At its sixth meeting, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol (COP-MOP) decided to establish an Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Socio-economic Considerations (AHTEG) to, among others, develop conceptual clarity on socio-economic considerations and requested the AHTEG to submit its report to COP-MOP for consideration (decision BS-VI/13).
The AHTEG met from 17 to 21 February 2014, in Seoul, Republic of Korea, and agreed to
Elements of a Framework for Conceptual Clarity on Socio-economic Considerations.
By
decision BS-VII/13, COP-MOP took note of the report of the AHTEG and extended the AHTEG, subject to the availability of funds. COP-MOP determined that the AHTEG should work, in a stepwise approach, on:
(i) the further development of conceptual clarity on socio-economic considerations arising from the impact of living modified organisms on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, and;
(ii) developing an outline for guidance with a view to making progress towards achieving operational objective 1.7 of the Strategic Plan and its outcomes.
By decision BS-VII/13, COP-MOP also requested Parties and invited other Governments, relevant organizations and indigenous and local communities to submit views and comments on the Elements of a Framework for Conceptual Clarity on Socio-Economic Considerations. To this end, the Executive Secretary issued a notification in January 2015 (Notification 2015-007) calling for the submission of views and comments.
A total of 18 Parties, 2 other Governments and 4 Organizations submitted their views and comments. As requested in decision BS-VII/13, the Executive Secretary compiled the
submissions and prepared a
synthesis of the views and comments submitted.
In light of the lack of sufficient funding to organize a face-to-face meeting of the AHTEG, and in consultation with the co-chairs of the AHTEG, it was decided to organize an on-line discussion to enable the AHTEG to undertake certain aspects of its mandate, focusing in particular on the further development of conceptual clarity.
The outcomes and conclusions of the online discussion will be submitted to the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol.
