Chair Margarita Clemente (Spain) opened discussions on a revised Chair’s text.




Above photo L-R: Chair Clemente in discussion with Hadil Fontes Da Rocha Vianna (Brazil), Fernando Casas (Colombia) and Carlos Martin-Novella (Spain)

Ethiopia, speaking on behalf of AFRICA, welcomed the text, stressing its willingness to advance negotiations on an international ABS regime.


Above photo: Tewolde Berhan Gerber Egzhiaber (Ethiopia)

SWITZERLAND requested deleting a bracketed reference stating that the regime is legally binding, and suggested that the regime could be composed of one or several binding or non-binding instruments.

Above photo: François Pythoud, Albert Spielmann, Jürg Bally and Robert Lamb (Switzerland)

Chair Clemente then established a regionally-balanced Friends of the Chair group to discuss the text. In the beginning of the afternoon session, Chair Clemente announced that the Committee of the Whole would be adjourned to Friday to allow for further deliberations in the Friends of the Chair group.

Above photo L-R: Chair Clemente with ENB writers Elisa Morgera and Elsa Tsioumani.

In the afternoon, the contact group addressed national measures on PIC and MAT, with some developed countries highlighting voluntary guidelines and codes of conduct to guide users in complying with the Bonn Guidelines and PIC, as well as capacity building, awareness raising and stakeholder development.

Above photos L-R: Henrique Choer (Brazil); Moriyasu Satoshi (Japan); Dominic Keating (US) and  Yoke Ling Chee (Third World Network)

Above photos L-R: Marie Kraus-Wollheim (Switzerland); Geoff Burton (Australia) and David Hafashimana (Uganda)