Developing countries need environment funding: Try
Developing countries need environment funding: Try
JAKARTA (JP): Without more global funding, developing
countries will not be able to live up to the Convention on
Biodiversity, Vice President Try Sutrisno said here yesterday.
They need to look for other financial resources, he told a
United Nations meeting of environment ministers.
"This is particularly true in view of the fact that developing
countries have foreign debt problems," he said.
Try said the global community should "share equal and fair"
responsibility for the environment.
However, ministers of Switzerland, Germany and other advanced
countries said the existing funds for the Convention were
adequate.
The Vice President opened the Ministerial Meeting of the
Second Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity,
which ends on Nov. 17.
The first conference was held last year in the Bahamas, after
the Convention was issued at the 1992 Earth Summit in Brazil.
The issues of nuclear testing and patenting of human material
were raised by several of the 41 ministers at yesterday's
conference.
Malaysia, Australia and a number of other countries said
nuclear testing runs counter to the Convention.
Canada criticized the patenting of human material of people in
the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.
Around 24 senior officials had raised the issue in an earlier
session. One speaker referred to the United States-sponsored
"Human Genome Project" which aims to gather blood and tissue
samples from the world's indigenous peoples.
Patenting human material was questioned in relation to
intellectual property rights and the rapid development of genetic
engineering.
Ministers of Zimbabwe, Indonesia and other developing
countries said regulations to ensure the safety of the use,
transfer and handling of genetic engineering (termed "biosafety
protocol") are important.
Intellectual property rights was another controversial issue
raised at the conference, with the ministers of Canada, India
urging consultation with indigenous people.
Representatives of traditional communities talking on the
sidelines of the conference have said they are basically against
patents on biological sources, which they regard as communal
property.
Indonesia proposed a study on the effects of patents on living
organisms and the protection of traditional knowledge.
Meanwhile, smaller, "contact" groups within the conference
worked to complete drafts on issues including marine and forest
biodiversity as well as biosafety protocol.
Delegates have agreed that Indonesia should be the focal point
for an intergovernmental panel of marine and coastal experts.
Conference chairman Sarwono Kusumaatmadja said the delegates
represented 115 of the 134 countries which have ratified the
Convention, and another 24 which are in the process of ratifying
it.
During a break between ministerial speeches, the United
Nations Environment Program launched its book entitled Global
Biodiversity Assessment. (anr)