Biosafety First

On September 11, 2003, as fifty countries ratified the first International Treaty on Biosafety, the Cartagena Protocol entered into force. The Protocol, if implemented in keeping with both the letter and the spirit, will not only save and maintain our mega biodiversity, Indians will also be proud to be safe from GMOs.

Hitherto, no legally binding international accord helped a regulator gain advance information on the Biosafety of GMOs when importing it, or empowered them to nail errant importers for not disclosing information on GMOs. This prompted incidents where some organizations/companies attempted to import food containing GMOs.

However, the countdown has now begun. Recently Palau ratified the Cartagena Protocol and paved the way for the first legally binding international agreement governing the movement of living modified organisms (LMOs) across national borders.

The Cartagena Protocol ensures that the development and use of biotechnology are subject to adequate and transparent safety measures, known collectively as Biosafety. The Protocol also seeks to protect biological diversity of various participating countries (including India), from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms (LMOs).

The Protocol establishes an advance informed agreement (AIA) procedure for ensuring that countries are provided with the information they need in order to make informed decisions before agreeing to the import of such organisms into their territory. The Protocol contains references to a precautionary approach and also establishes a Biosafety clearing house to facilitate the exchange of information on LMOs.

The Cartagena Protocol derives its name from a city in Colombia where the Biosafety Protocol was originally scheduled to be concluded and adopted in February 1999. However, due to a number of outstanding issues, the Protocol was finalized and adopted a year later on 29 January 2000 in Montreal, Canada. A visibly lengthy looking Cartagena Protocol is described in 40 articles and three Annexures.

India signed the protocol on January 23, 2001 and ratified it on January 17, 2003, India.

The Protocol is an outcome of the efforts of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which adopted a supplementary agreement to the Convention known as the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. In accordance with the precautionary approach contained in Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the objective of this Protocol is to contribute to ensuring an adequate level of protection in the field of the safe transfer, handling and use of LMOs that may have adverse effects on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health, and specifically focusing on trans-boundary movements.

Significance for India
As a party to the Cartagena Protocol, India can insist upon the following:

1. All exporters must provide information to the importing country regarding the characteristics of the LMO under consideration, as well as information deriving from a risk assessment of that LMO.

It is simply prudent for India to know which LMOs are entering the country and for there to be an assessment of the risks posed by an LMO prior to its introduction into the environment of the importing country.

2. Considering that LMOs potentially pose many different threats to India’s biodiversity and that India has mega bio-diversities of many plant species, the Protocol will help prevent adverse effects of LMOs on the conservation and sustainable use of our biodiversity.

3. Parties to the protocol will consider the issue of liability and redress over the next four years. Given the recent experience of deliberate attempt of some organizations to import genetically modified items into India, the introduction of illegal bt-cotton and threat of erosion of biodiversity in case of Brassica family, Soya, and maize, through the introduction of GMOs for deliberate release, this topic would be of great concern to India.

4. The Protocol recognizes that scientific knowledge about LMOs is incomplete, and efforts are required to take measures to prevent environmental harm in the absence of scientific certainty about that harm.

5. The Protocol will provide enhanced visibility and credibility of national systems for regulating Biosafety (Presently GEAC in the ministry of Environment & Forests of govt. of India, regulate GMOs).

6. Improved access to relevant technologies and data, and benefiting from a regular exchange of information and expertise; and

7. Demonstration of commitment to conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity through the implementation of bio-safety measures.