Caricom building capacity to implement genetic resources protocol

The Caricom Secretariat last week hosted a capacity building workshop for member states aimed at enhancing their abilities to implement the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing of genetic resources.

The workshop was held with a view to making the protocol operational in keeping with national legislation by 2015.

The workshop, the third in this regard, was held in partnership with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity at the Caricom Secretariat Annex, a press statement from the Caricom Secretariat said. Its objective was to strengthen the capacity of the participating countries to ratify or accede to the Protocol and to prepare for its implementation with the view to contributing to making it operational consistent with national legislation, thereby achieving Aichi Target 16.

In her address at the opening ceremony for the workshop, Myrna Bernard, Director of Human Development at the Caricom Secretariat, said the seminar is timely as many member states are currently updating their national biodiversity strategies and action plans. She said the Caricom Secretariat,