Operations and activities of the Biosafety Clearing-House
The Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the
Parties to the Cartagena Protocol,
Having examined the note by the Executive Secretary
(UNEP/CBD/BS/COP-MOP/2/3), reviewing the operation and development
of the Biosafety Clearing-House,
Welcoming and taking into account the outcomes of the
internal review of the operation of the Biosafety Clearing-House
conducted by the Secretariat,
Welcoming with appreciation the transition of the pilot
phase to the fully operational Biosafety Clearing-House, and the
ongoing development of its Central Portal,
Emphasizing the need for capacity-building to enable
developing countries to effectively use the Biosafety
Clearing-House, including managing their obligations to report
information, and welcoming in this regard the continuing
efforts of the Global Environment Facility to expand its support to
building capacity for effective participation in the Biosafety
Clearing-House and its recent extension of country eligibility for
this purpose,
Welcomingwith appreciation the
capacity-building activities of the Secretariat, such as the
Biosafety Clearing-House training workshop, and extending its
thanks to the Government of the Netherlands and the Global
Industry Coalition for their generous sponsorship of this workshop,
and the UNEP/GEF biosafety team for their collaboration,
Recalling that the Conference of the Parties serving as
the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol at its first meeting
encouraged the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development and other organizations involved in the development of
unique identification systems for living modified organisms to
initiate or enhance their activities towards the development of a
harmonized system of unique identifiers for genetically modified
micro-organisms and animals (decision BS-I/6 C, paragraph 3),
Noting that the provision of relevant information is
essential for the effective operation of the Biosafety
Clearing-House,
1. Adopts the multi-year programme of work contained in
the annex to the present decision;
2. Welcomes the participation of Governments and
international organizations that have provided information to the
Biosafety Clearing-House, either directly through the Management
Centre of the Central Portal, or through the development of nodes
that are interoperable with the Central Portal of the Biosafety
Clearing-House;
3. Encourages Parties, Governments and other users to
continue to use the Management Centre to provide information,
and/or to develop national, regional, subregional and institutional
nodes that are interlinked and interoperable with the Central
Portal, as appropriate;
4. Urges all Parties, Governments and other users to
provide relevant information to the Biosafety Clearing-House as
soon as possible, including information pertaining to decisions on
the release or import of living modified organisms and risk
assessments taken prior to entry into force of the Protocol, and to
undertake regular review of the information they have previously
made available;
5. Invites Parties, Governments and other users to
identify constraints on making information available in a timely
manner, and to implement strategies to overcome these
difficulties;
6. Invites Parties, Governments and international
organizations to make relevant biosafety information available
through the Biosafety Information Resource Centre;
7. Calls upon each Party that has not yet done so to
designate an appropriate national focal point for the Biosafety
Clearing-House;
8. Invites donor Governments and organizations to
assist developing country Parties, in particular the least
developed and small island developing States among them, and
countries with economies in transition, as well as countries that
are centres of origin and centres of genetic diversity, to access
and use the Biosafety Clearing-House, particularly in the areas of
improved capacity for data collection and data management at a
national level, strengthening of core human resources at a national
level, and the establishment of appropriate infrastructure to share
information at both national, regional and international
levels;
9. Requests the Executive Secretary to continue to
support capacity-building efforts to meet the needs of developing
countries, in particular the least developed and small island
developing States among them, and countries with economies in
transition, as well as countries with limited capacity that are
centres of origin and centres of genetic diversity, to enable their
active participation in the Biosafety Clearing-House.
Annex
MULTI-YEAR PROGRAMMME OF WORK FOR THE
OPERATION OF THE BIOSAFETY CLEARING-HOUSE
Programme element 1: Structure and function of the
central portal
Objective: Improve ease of reporting and accessing
information in the Biosafety Clearing-House in response to
identified needs of users.
Possible activities:
- Expand the general user base of the Biosafety Clearing-House by
making it more accessible to novice users, for example by making
the information more intuitively easy to find (while maintaining as
much of the existing structure as is feasible), clustering search
results, improving support functions such as an interactive
Biosafety Clearing House user guide. Main actor: Secretariat,
with input from Governments and relevant organizations. Timeframe:
ongoing.
- Ensure that common formats are flexible enough to enable full
reporting of information (for example, able to accommodate
reporting of data produced prior to entry into force of the
Protocol, such as risk assessments conducted outside the annex III
format; able to accommodate data reported through product-based
regulatory models), while maintaining backwards compatibility with
existing information-exchange partners. Main actor:
Secretariat, with input from Governments and relevant
organizations. Timeframe: annual review of common
formats.
- Expand controlled vocabularies as required to reflect changing
technologies and types of information that are being reported to
the Biosafety Clearing-House. Main actor: Secretariat, with
input from other organizations maintaining multilingual
thesauri.Timeframe: annual.
- Differentiate between null responses where information is not
available because it does not exist, versus information that has
not been reported on. Main actor: Secretariat, with input from
Governments and relevant organizations. Timeframe: December
2005.
- Maintain support for interoperability options with partner
Governments and organizations. Main actor: Secretariat with
input from Governments and relevant organizations. Timeframe:
ongoing.
Programme element 2: Information content and
management
Objective: Increase the amount of information that is
currently being reported to the Biosafety Clearing-House, and
ensure it is provided in a timely manner.
Possible activities:
- Appoint national focal points (or, where appropriate,
institutional focal points) for the Biosafety Clearing-House, to
actively make information available through the Biosafety
Clearing-House. Main actor: Governments. Timeframe: To be
appointed by mid-2005.
- Collate information relating to obligations of Governments to
provide certain data within particular time-limits and make this
more visible through the Biosafety Clearing-House. Main actor:
Secretariat. Timeframe: To be made available by mid-2005.
- Compile existing biosafety information required to be reported
under the Protocol (see section A of the Modalities of Operation of
the Biosafety Clearing-House) and ensure it has been made available
to the Biosafety Clearing-House where appropriate. Main actor:
Governments. Timeframe: December 2005.
- Review existing information in the Biosafety Clearing-House to
ensure it has been accurately reported and categorized. Main
actor: Governments. Timeframe: quarterly.
- Improve user documentation to assist focal points and other
authorized users by providing clear examples and descriptions of
data required in each field within the common formats. Main
actor: Secretariat, in collaboration with capacity-building
organizations. Timeframe: as appropriate.
- Identify constraints on making information available in a
timely manner and implement strategies to overcome these
difficulties. Main actor: Governments. Timeframe: December
2005.
- Share experiences with the use of the Biosafety Clearing-House,
particularly by providing case-studies of experiences with national
management and clearance of information ("validation"). Main
actor: Governments. Timeframe: December 2005.
- Continue to encourage Governments to provide information to the
Biosafety Clearing-House through, for example, reminders of
information-exchange requirements and provision of tools to allow
Governments to assess their performance in meeting their reporting
requirements to the Biosafety Clearing-House. Main actor:
Secretariat. Timeframe: ongoing.
Programme element 3: Sharing information on and
experience with LMOs
Objective: Make a broader range of biosafety information
accessible to users of the Biosafety Clearing House.
Possible activities:
- Continue to develop the Biosafety Information Resource Centre.
Main actor: Secretariat. Timeframe: December 2005.
- Collect information relevant to biosafety issues, and make it
available through the Biosafety Information Resource Centre.
Main actor: Governments and relevant organizations. Timeframe:
biannual.
- Make use of information-sharing mechanisms such as discussion
forums and online conference facilities through the Biosafety
Clearing-House to facilitate a broad exchange of views on
experience with LMOs. Main actor: Secretariat with Governments
and relevant organizations. Timeframe: as appropriate.
- Consult among national, regional, subregional and institutional
centres with relevant expertise, as well as non-governmental
organizations and the private sector, to maximize use of existing
experience and expertise. Main actor: Secretariat with relevant
organizations. Timeframe: Initial consultations to be completed by
June 2006.
Programme element 4: Capacity-building and
non-Internet accessibility
Objective: Ensure that countries have the necessary
capabilities to access the Internet-based central Portal and are
able to access information through the Biosafety Clearing-House in
a timely manner.
Possible activities:
- Continue to take into account the identified capacity-building
constraints and financial limitations of developing countries with
regard to effective participation in the Biosafety Clearing-House,
placing a high priority on data collection and data management,
strengthening of core human resources at a national level, and the
establishment of appropriate infrastructure to share information at
national, regional and international levels. Main actor: Donor
governments and relevant organizations. Timeframe:
ongoing.
- Examine the feasibility of expanding existing web features to
enable distribution by e-mail and fax (for example, participation
in discussion forums). Main actor: Secretariat, if adequate
resources are made available. Timeframe: December 2005.
- Circulate regularly updated CD-ROM versions of information in
the Biosafety Clearing-House to those users without good access to
the Internet. Main actor: Secretariat, if adequate resources
are made available. Timeframe: biannual.
- Take advantage of opportunities for providing training in the
use of the Biosafety Clearing-House, such as meetings of the
Parties to the Protocol, taking into account the need for the
Biosafety Clearing-House to be used in the broader context of
Protocol implementation. Main actor: Secretariat, if adequate
resources are made available. Timeframe: ongoing.
Programme element 5: Review of
activities
Objective: Ensure that the programme of work is achieving
the goals of the Biosafety Clearing-House effectively.
Possible activities:
- Continue to review the operation of the Biosafety
Clearing-House, including through the use of targeted follow-up
surveys and usability studies, and by providing user feedback
mechanisms directly on the Biosafety Clearing House, subject to
available resources. Main actor: Secretariat with input from
Governments and relevant organizations. Timeframe:
ongoing.
- Conduct a second review of the Biosafety Clearing-House, and
compare improvements against existing baseline data, as part of the
review of the implementation of the Protocol envisaged in the
medium-term programme of work for the Protocol. Timeframe: for
consideration at the fourth meeting of the Conference of the
Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the
Protocol
