Category: News

A recent paper published last March in “Nature” reports on the on-going negotiations about the Nagoya protocol extension. In the current protocol, the legal regime for the access to non-human genetic resources as well as the equitable and fair sharing of benefits obtained from their utilization is developed. As far as marine resources are concerned, the current protocol only covers waters within national jurisdiction, yet there are many resources in international waters sea whose benefits are not shared in an equitative way. Authored by Olive Heffernan, the paper describes how the new treaty will include genetic resources accessed in international waters, as well as the digital genetic sequences obtained from those genetic resources. Some researchers fear that the new legal framework will become a bottleneck that hamper their access to marine genetic at high seas, ultimately hindering new discoveries.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00912-w

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Twitter https://twitter.com/Juliana00626378/status/1182318877197385728?s=20

YouTube https://youtu.be/5ucKeogLYE8

Enhance microalgae project, with whom EBB already shared the organisation of a workshop last November, launches now an interesting initiative: a “virtual Marketplace”, an online platform to exchange interests, knowledge, techniques and services in the field of microalgae (http://emamarket.anfaco.es). The virtual marketplace enables to post requests and offers. Enhance microalgae is also maintaining a database of stakeholders related to the microalgae sector, which can be consulted online here: https://www.enhancemicroalgae.eu/stakeholders-database

Ibon Cancio participated in the workshop and on enrolment was invited to present his perspective as researcher on the utilization of Digital Sequence Information in marine biological sciences. The aim of the workshop was to present European Commission policy makers and Nagoya national focal points on the needs of researchers in regard to DSI and the hurdles that new regulations in the framework of the Nagoya protocol on Access and benefit Sharing could impose in scientific advances.

Three regulatory scenarios were discussed in advance of the COP meeting to take place in China in October 2020.

The contents of the workshop can be visited here: https://www.dsmz.de/collection/nagoya-protocol/digital-sequence-information/dsi-workshop-march-2020

The article “Advances and uncertainties in compliance measures for users from the Nagoya Protocol in the European Union” authored by Dr. Laura Movilla, lecturer in Public International Law at the University of Vigo, has been accepted for publication in the journal Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law (RECIEL). Research for this article was supported by the project ‘European Marine Biological Resource Centre Biobank’ (EBB), funded by the Interreg Atlantic Area Programme. The link to the article is https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/reel.12320.

The Centro de Investigación Mariña of the Universidade de Vigo (CIM-UVigo), coordinator of the “European Blue Biobank” (EBB) project is organizing, together with the CETMAR Foundation, a technical workshop to raise awareness of the existing obligations to access and use genetic resources derived from the Nagoya Protocol (2010) and associated regulations.

The Nagoya Protocol, signed by 92 countries including Spain, aims at a fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources. In Spain, the Protocol is translated into the ByLaw 124/2017, which regulates the access and use of genetic resources from wild taxa. In Galicia, the Law 5/2019 on natural heritage and biodiversity, reflects basic aspects for the application of the rule in this territory and the obligation of communication of the territorial administration to the national focal point.

The implementation of the Nagoya Protocol and associated legislation is complex and involves an administrative burden which most users of these resources are unfamiliar with. The conference aims to inform attendees about the obligations and requirements established in this legislation, as well as to present and analyze examples of commercial and non-commercial use of marine resources within the scope of the Protocol. Finally, the Best Practice Guidelines for accessing genetic resources developed within the framework of the EBB project will be presented.

Noelia Vallejo Pedregal, Spanish National Focal Point for the Nagoya Protocol, from the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Alejandro Lago, responsible of the UNDP-GEF ABS Global project and Fiz da Costa, researcher from the CIM-UVigo and the responsible of the EBB project, will participate in this event.

The conference will take place at the CETMAR facilities in Vigo on the 14th February 2020 from 11:00 to 14:30 h. Attendance is free, but registration is required. The agenda of this workshop will soon be available at the same link provided for registration.

If you are interested in attending, you can register at the following link: https://cetmar.org/seminarios/Nagoya/

Follow us in twitter #Nagoya_recursosmarinos

“Agentes se reúnen en el País Vasco, para coordinar el Biobanco Marino Europeo” was published following the 3^rd General Assembly geld in Plentzia and Bilabo (5-6 November 2019) in the magazine Europa Azul, dedicated to inform on issues related to fisheries, aquaculture, maritime transport, research and oil and gas in the Basque and the Galician autonomous regions.

The European Blue Biobank project (by EMBRC -ERIC, https://www.bluebiobank.eu), together with the coordinators of the EnhanceMicroAlgae project (https://www.enhancemicroalgae.eu), will participate in the upcoming forum Business2Sea2019 (Porto, Portugal, 11-13 November) offering the workshop: Fostering development of microalgal-based industries: legal and practical aspects. The workshop will take place on November 12th at 11:30 am. Register your attendance at: https://business2sea2019.b2match.io/home (open until 5 November 2019).

EBB partnership meets in Bilbao on 5-6 November to hold their annual General Assembly, where they will be discussing progress on the different tasks and activities of the project. The programme includes two mini-workshops and a visit to the Marine Station of Plentzia.