Living modified organisms, advance informed agreement and a Biosafety Clearing-House: the Cartagena Protocol

Background

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is an agreement made under the Convention on Biological Diversity, and it deals with living modified organisms, or LMOs. Its full name is the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity, and it aims at the safe transfer, handling and use of LMOs from modern biotechnology that could harm biological diversity, while also taking risks to human health into account. Cartagena is a city in Colombia where the text was first meant to be concluded, but outstanding issues delayed it and the Protocol was finally adopted at Montreal. The Protocol was adopted on 29 January 2000, and it came into force on 11 September 2003. Its central rule is the advance informed agreement procedure, which applies to the first intentional transboundary movement of LMOs meant for release into the environment of the importing Party. That procedure has four parts: notification by the exporting Party or the exporter, acknowledgment of receipt by the importing Party, a decision step and a review of decisions. A lighter procedure covers LMOs intended for direct use as food or feed, or for processing. The Protocol also set up a Biosafety Clearing-House through which Parties exchange scientific, technical, environmental and legal information, and the Nagoya – Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol sits beside it on liability and redress.