The Fifth Meeting of the Open-ended |
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| BSWG Chair Viet Koester (Denmark), CBD Executive Secretary Calestous Juma, and UNEP Biodiversity Unit Chief Hamdallah Zedan (representing the Executive director of UNEP) offer opening remarks to the BSWG- 5 today |  |
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Colombian delegates Adriana Sote and Ivan Artunduaga, following Colombia's offer to host BIOS-6 |
| The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Building, location of the fifth session of the Open-Ended Ad Hoc Working Group on Biosafety from 17 August to 28 August 1998 |  |
RealAudio recordings from the opening Plenary
of BSWG-5
17 August 1998
Veit Koester welcomes delegates
(simultaneous interpretation of comments in English)
Calestous Juma, Executive
Secretary of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity counsels the
participants on how to proceed in the negotiations of the Biosafety Protocol, announced
that Colombia has offered to host the Sixth Session of the BSWG. He also communicated to
the Working Group that he has not decided to renew his contract for personal reasons,
particularly family considerations.
Koester noted his saddness
his reaction to Dr. Juma's announcement and suggests that Dr. Juma would convey his
thoughts on 28 August and when the body can express its appreciation to Dr. Juma.
Hamdallah Zedan, representative
of the Executive Director of UNEP, expresses his best wishes for the negotiations. He
announced the GEF UNEP joint biosafety program. He announced an industry-sponsored study
tour of field studies of biotechnology products for delegates following this meeting.
The representative of
Colombia presented the official invitation to host the Sixth meeting of the Working
Group and the Extraordinary Conference of the Parties and will begin coordination with the
Secretariat for this meeting.
Desmond Mahon of the CBD
Secretariat introduced the documentation for the meeting.
Chair Veit Koester (Denmark) gave
opening remarks including structure (interrelationships between sub-working groups and
interaction between co-chairs, the mandate of the sub-working groups), comments on the
revised compilation text, the balance between negotiating expediency and transparency
including restrictive measures dealing with NGO participation, saying "you will do
what you are asked to do." Koester also addressed the issue of "products
thereof" (defined as the products from living modified organisms resulting from
biotechnology) and the issue of scope.