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Monday, 25 June
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Plenary
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Co-Chair Cristián Maquiera, Chile, highlighted the importance of ICP-8 to gain knowledge on access, scientific complexity, and economic and legal issues related to MGRs.
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Co-Chair Lori Ridgeway, Canada, noted the need to find common understanding on the trends and the way forward with regards to MGRs.
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Gabriele Goettsche-Wanli, UN DOALOS, provided an overview of side events scheduled during the week.
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Farukh Amil, Pakistan, for the G-77/CHINA, emphasized that MGRs are part of the "common heritage of mankind."
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Robert Aisi, Papua New Guinea, for the Pacific Islands Forum, highlighted negotiations to establish a South Pacific RFMO.
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Verena Gräfin von Roedern, Germany, for the EU, emphasized the need to discuss MGRs in and beyond areas of national jurisdiction separately.
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Brazil said the discussion would contribute to the 2008 meeting of the ad hoc working group on marine biodiversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction.
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Stuart Beck, Palau, urged countries to heed the UN General Assembly's recent call to close bottom fisheries in vulnerable marine ecosystems.
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Renée Sauvé, Canada, called for maximizing research and facilitating access without endangering MGRs.
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Constance Arvis, United States, reminded delegates that resources within national jurisdictions should also be considered.
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Penny Race, New Zealand, highlighted the importance of ICP-8 to inform discussions in other fora such as the CBD.
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Dire Tladi, South Africa, emphasized that under UNCLOS, activities in the Area are to be "carried out for the benefit of mankind as a whole."
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The Russian Federation supported strengthening international integration in creating databases.
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India underscored that developing country participation depends on the scientific data available to them.
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Chile supported applying the precautionary principle, an ecosystem-wide focus and taking into account socioeconomic aspects.
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Japan said bioprospecting increases scientific knowledge and benefits mankind, and opposed unnecessary regulation of bioprospecting.
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Luis Niño, Venezuela identified the need to better understand the technical, socioeconomic, legal and environmental aspects related to MGRs.
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Australia looked forward to an exchange of domestic experiences as a way to proceed beyond the access and benefit-sharing impasse.
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Holger Martinsen, Argentina, said that MGRs in areas beyond national jurisdiction fall under the common heritage of mankind.
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Yolanda Alaniz Pasini, Sierra Club, called for multilateral action to address the threat posed to marine biodiversity by anthropogenic noise.
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Karen Sack, Greenpeace, announced an upcoming scientific survey of deep ocean canyons in the Bering Sea.
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Side Event
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UNESCO and the UN University Institute of Advanced Studies hosted a lunchtime side event on "Marine genetic resources: Research, commercial uses and a database on marine bioprospecting."
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Discussion Panel: Understanding Marine Genetic Resources, their Vulnerabilty, and the Services they Provide
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Frank Oliver Glöckner, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Germany, noted that investigations of MGRs are hindered by high infrastructure costs and lack of a stable intellectual property rights framework.
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Curtis Suttle, University of British Columbia, Canada, said that although microbes dominate the ocean, humanity still knows very little about their genetic diversity, and the factors that control their distribution.
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Libby Evans-Illidge, Australian Institute of Marine Science, discussed practical databases and knowledge-sharing for MGRs, focusing on the diversity of macro-organisms in the ocean.
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David Rowley, University of Rhode Island, US, called for cross-disciplinary collaboration between scientists and engineers, and knowledge-sharing through open-access databases.
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Muhammad Shah, Pakistan, asked panelists about ownership of MGRs.
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Matt Gianni, Natural Resources Defense Council, asked panelists about ocean fertilization, carbon sequestration, and climate change.
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UNCTAD asked panelists about identifying the origin of MGRs.
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John Hooper, Australia, noted differences between terrestrial and seabed life.
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Ireland highlighted the rapid regeneration of microorganisms.
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