A United Nations biodiversity summit this fall seeks to give Indigenous and local communities a bigger slice of the "multitrillion-dollar revenues and other benefits“ from the DNA sequences of plants, animals and microbes.
The move comes as Germany's Astrid Schomaker, a high-ranking European Commission environmental official, became executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity on Monday.
Appointed to the post by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, Schomaker says "securing the future of biodiversity means securing the future of humankind."
The secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity that she now heads also released new proposals six weeks before nations meet in mid-August at its headquarters in Montréal.
The meeting will be held to prepare for the 16th meeting of the parties to the U.N. Biodiversity Conference, known as COP 16, planned for late October in Cali, Colombia.
The goal of the U.N.-brokered proposals is to equitably share revenues from products such as drugs, cosmetics, and agricultural biotechnology.
The U.N. says agreement is needed on several questions including which industrial sectors that use digital sequence information on genetic resources, or DSI, should be allowed to share in its benefits.
Other concerns are the potential negative impacts on open access to data, research and innovation, U.N. officials say, and the role of science in non-monetary benefit sharing.
Profit share to power a global fund
All producers of DSI products and companies dependent on them would be "encouraged to contribute" to the profit sharing, but "the main focus would be on large and transnational producers or companies," the proposals say.
The proposal's backers hope to draw revenue for a global fund that helps preserve the variety of plant and animal life in the world.
The industry sectors that most depend on DSI generate from “one to a few trillion dollars annually,” according to the Malawi's chief environmental officer Mphatso Kalemba and the United Kingdom's deputy director for international biodiversity and wildlife, William Lockhart.
They emphasize the fund would gain US$1 billion for every 0.1% of US$1 trillion generated. The U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity’s 196 parties pledged to create such a fund at COP15 in 2022.
“Until now, users of information on genetic resources have shared little of the profits generated from their use," said CBD's acting executive secretary, David Cooper.
