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| Closing SBSSTA- 4 Plenary |
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 The Chair of Working Group I, Martin Uppenbrink
(Germany), introduced the draft decisions his group had negotiated. |
| Zipangani Vokhiwa (Malawi), Chair of Working
Group I, introduced the draft decisions of his group. |
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Edward Hammond, Rural Advancement Foundation
International (RAFI), expressed strong concern that SBSTTA's failure to call for a
moratorium sets a framework for enabling field-testing, commercialization and patenting of
GURTs. "He who has the gold makes the rules..." |
| On sustainable use, including tourism (UNEP/
CBD/SBSTTA/4/L.4), ZIMBABWE stressed that a full discussion on sustainable use should be
taken up at the next SBSTTA. |
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NEW ZEALAND stated it could not accept the preambular
paragraph on recognizing that any Party or government may establish a moratorium on GURTs
without including reference to "uncontained" field testing, and agreed to the
Chair's suggestion that she record her reservation in the final report. |
| NORWAY said the recommendation to develop
cooperation with scientific advisory bodies of biodiversity-related conventions
(UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/4/ CRP.2) was too limiting. |
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The US noted for the report that it could not associate
itself with any implicit call for a moratorium on testing or commercialization of GURTs |
| On a recommendation to not approve
field-testing of GURTs until scientific assessments are validated, MEXICO opposed
relocating a reference to food security |
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On progress in the work programmes on thematic
areas (UNEP/ CBD/SBSTTA/4/CRP.3), CANADA proposed deleting a paragraph
inviting Parties to provide human and other resources to assist the
Executive Secretary in its work programme on forest biodiversity.
CANADA also suggested adding a phrase urging the Executive Secretary
to report to SBSTTA-5 on the forest biodiversity issue. |
| Hamdallah Zedan, Acting Executive Secretary,
noted that SBSTTA-4 recommendations put forward a challenging agenda, and set forth
implications for the Secretariat's human and financial resources. He called for Parties to
make the necessary funding available to make the job possible. |
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SBSTTA-4 Chair Zakri Hamid noted that the
meeting received input from a wide range of actors, including international organizations,
the public sector and indigenous groups. He said these inputs provided a variety of views
and make the meeting report a living process. As Chair of SBSTTA-3 and SBSTTA-4, he said
he had seen the evolution of the body from tentative beginnings to a global center of
referral on biodiversity information. He closed SBSTTA-4 at 5:30 pm. |
