What has been done on Unintentional Transboundary Movements and Emergency Measures

In its decision BS-V/16 the COP-MOP adopted a programme of work for the Cartagena Protocol for the period 2012-2016. In its decision the Parties decided to consider, at their sixth meeting, on unintentional transboundary movements of living modified organisms and emergency measures as provided under Article 17 of the Protocol and to consider the development of tools and guidance that facilitate appropriate responses to unintentional transboundary movements.

In that same decision, with the adoption of the Strategic Plan for implementation of the Protocol for the period 2011-2020 by the COP-MOP, unintentional transboundary movements of living modified organisms and emergency measures was addressed under Operational Objective 1.8 with the view to facilitating the development of tools and guidance that facilitate the implementation of the Protocol's provisions on unintentional transboundary movements and emergency measures.

Accordingly, at its sixth meeting, the COP-MOP considered considered the item on unintentional transboundary movements. In their decision BS-VI/16, the COP-MOP, inter alia invited Parties and other Governments to cooperate in building capacity, transferring the technology and exchanging information necessary to detect and respond to occurrences resulting in a release that could lead to unintentional transboundary movement of an LMO that is likely to have significant adverse effects on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health.

In moving towards the implementation of the relevant operational objectives of the Strategic Plan and elements of decision BS-VI/16 the Network of Laboratories for the Detection and Identification of Living Modified Organisms included in its objectives activities to make progress towards the outcomes under, inter alia, operational objective 1.8. As a result of its activities, the Network launched a compilation of Technical Tools and Guidance for the Detection and Identification of LMOs.

Considering the progress made under the operational objective 1.8, including recommendations from the Network of Laboratories, the COP-MOP, in its decision BS-VII/10, invited Parties and other Governments to submit views on what constitutes unintentional transboundary movements in contrast with illegal transboundary movements and what type of information should be exchanged through the Biosafety Clearing-House (BCH) to facilitate consideration of clarifications of these terms at its next meeting. Furthermore, the COP-MOP invited Parties and other Governments to submit information on actual cases on unintentional transboundary movement and case studies related to their existing mechanisms for emergency measures in case of unintentional transboundary movements of LMOs. The COP-MOP requested continued discussions of the Online Network of Laboratories for the Detection and Identification of Living Modified Organisms.

At the eighth meeting, in its decision CP-VIII/16, the COP-MOP adopted the operational definitions of the terms “unintentional transboundary movement” and “illegal transboundary movement”, which are found in the Annex of that decision, and encouraged Parties to make use of these operational definitions when completing their national reports.

In addition, the COP-MOP urged Parties to submit to the BCH information and available guidance on the mechanisms for emergency measures in case of a release that leads or may lead to an unintentional transboundary movement of an LMO that may have adverse effects on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health. Furthermore, the COP-MOP invited Parties to nominate experts in the field of LMO detection and identification to the roster of biosafety experts and requested continued online discussions of the Online Network of Laboratories for the Detection and Identification of Living Modified Organisms. The COP-MOP noted the draft training manual on detection and identification of LMOs and requested the Executive Secretary to continue working on the draft manual in collaboration of the Online Network of Laboratories for the Detection and Identification of Living Modified Organisms and to make the manual available for consideration by the ninth meeting of the Parties.

At the ninth meeting of the Parties, in decision CP-9/11, the COP-MOP took note of the draft manual on detection and identification of living modified organisms as a tool for building capacities in this field and acknowledged that the lack of fully operational biosafety frameworks may impact the capacity of some Parties to implement provisions relating to Article 17. Furthermore, the COP-MOP encouraged Parties to require the responsible operator of a living modified organism to provide information or access, direct or indirect, to reference materials to enable the laboratory work on detection and identification of such organisms for regulatory purposes. The COP-MOP invited Parties to submit information on (a) their capacities and needs with regard to detection and identification of LMOs and (b) a list of laboratories, including information on specific activities carried out by such laboratories.

During this intersessional period, the Executive Secretary was requested to:

1. Continue collecting information relevant to the detection and identification of living modified organisms and making it available in a user-friendly manner through the BCH;
2. Review and finalize the manual on detection and identification of living modified organisms, ensuring consistency with Article 17 of the Protocol;
3. Collect and synthesize information submitted by Parties regarding their capacities to detect and identify LMOs and a list of laboratories, and reflect the information in the capacity-building action plan for the post-2020 framework, as appropriate;
4. Continue facilitating online discussions of the Network of Laboratories for the Detection and Identification of Living Modified Organisms; and
5. Continue efforts to collaborate with relevant organizations and to build capacity of developing countries in relation to detection and identification of living modified organisms in the context of Article 17, in particular by focusing on regions that have not benefited from recent capacity-building activities.