The speakers and experts here at a consultative workshop stressed the need for revisiting of the draft of the Biodiversity Act and develop an access benefit sharing law in the context of the Nagoya Protocol, for benefit of the country. The inspector general forests (IGF), Planning and Development Department Division, Government of Pakistan, and International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), jointly organised the workshop titled “Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Law for Pakistan”.
The two-day discussions focused on the regulation of derivatives, certification of compliance, regulation of Traditional Knowledge related to genetic resources and on the development of an institutional framework for ABS in Pakistan. The Chief Guest on the occasion was Ishfaque Ahmad, Advisor on Climate Change and Sustainable Development who emphasized that the diversity of Pakistan’s biological resources needed to be preserved. He commended the efforts of the IGF and IUCN in facilitating the finalization of the draft law and reiterated that the mater had been placed at priority at government level. IFG, Syed Mahmood Nasir in his address of welcome emphasized that the conservation of biological resources was mandatory for Pakistan which is a party to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
