Information Sharing

COP-MOP 11

At its eleventh meeting, the COP-MOP welcomed with appreciation the improvements made to the central portal of the Biosafety Clearing-House in accordance with the joint modalities of operation for the clearing-house mechanism of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Biosafety Clearing-House and the Access and Benefit-sharing Clearing-House, as endorsed in decision CP-9/2. It also noted the work of the Informal Advisory Committee on the Biosafety Clearing House (BCH).

In decision CP-11/3 on Operation and activities of the Biosafety Clearing-House, among other things, the COP-MOP urged Parties to make all required information systematically available on the BCH, requested them to review their national records published in the BCH for accuracy, as well as invited Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations to submit scientific information to improve the quality of information published in the BCH. The COP-MOP also urged Parties to start the preparation of their fifth national reports on the implementation of the Cartagena Protocol and ensure the publication thereof in the BCH in a timely manner. It also welcomed the successful implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme-Global Environment Facility project for sustainable capacity-building for effective participation in the Biosafety Clearing-House, and urged potential donor country Parties, other Governments and funding organizations to provide funds to continue the project and other capacity-building projects related to the Biosafety Clearing-House and to support the network of regional advisers. The COP-MOP requested the Global Environment Facility, and invited other relevant funds, to continue to make funds available to Parties in support of activities related to the Biosafety Clearing-House and national biosafety websites. It also welcomed the collaborative activities of the Secretariat of the Convention with biosafety-related organizations and the linkages between the BCH and other databases.

For the next inter-sessional period, the COP-MOP requested the Executive Secretary (a) to continue to maintain the Biosafety Clearing-House and to make necessary improvements to it, including those recommended by the Informal Advisory Committee and those requested by the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol, and to the functionalities of various parts of the platform, so as to avoid creating new thematic pages; (b) to continue to translate pages of the Biosafety Clearing-House, including new features and content as they are developed, to ensure the availability of the platform in the six official languages of the United Nations; (c) to develop a customized biosafety national website template using the Bioland tool and to make it available to Parties wishing to build a national biosafety website with linkages to the Biosafety Clearing-House; (d) to continue to develop capacity-building materials and to provide training on the new functionalities of the Biosafety Clearing-House; and (e) to continue to collaborate with other biosafety-related databases and organizations.