CoP11 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity - CBD

This is a collective Indian civil society statement issued on the eve of the 11th Conference of Parties (CoP11) of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.  We were very much part of this initiative. 

Biodiversity is under threat due to three principal reasons, the 3Cs:

 1. Consumption

With a view to capitalise, we have branded all things natural, which are part of our life support system, as “resources”, which helped consumption of both ‘biotic and abiotic resources’ in ever increasing pace, while there is lot of wastage. Ocean biotic resources, such as fish, are being ‘caught’ by huge floating factories (ship-based) which catch and can (packing) which is causing the rapid depletion of the fish resources. Animals are being culled and poached. All the free ranging animals, such as goats, sheep, cows and buffaloes, are being killed for gargantuan diets of human beings. Birds are becoming extinct, as many are killed for various purposes. Trees are being cut, rapidly. Various ‘green resources’ are being pillaged for multiple purposes. This ‘over’ consumption beyond the recovering & regeneration capacity of the earth has been a major threat to genetic and bio-resources. Such overconsumption is eroding biodiversity, at a rapid pace, triggered by massive and irrational consumption and wastage of bio-resources.

2. Contamination

In many places across India and in Andhra Pradesh, industrial and urban effluents are contaminating bio-resources, including water, food and land. Water resources, such as  rivers, tanks, ground water, gulfs & inland seas and even oceans are polluted and are continuously getting contaminated. This contamination is entering food chains through water intake by various living organisms, including plants, grass, crops and animals. Oil spills, gas pipeline explosions and mobile towers are killing fragile environments, as various species are adversely affected. Air pollution, pesticide sprays and usage is selectively killing species, leading to imbalance and growth in dangerous pests, viruses, bacteria etc..

Modern biotechnology is modifying the very DNA of plants, vegetables, fish, animals and various other bio-resources by inserting ‘foreign’ genes, proteins and viruses. In recent times, genetically-modified seeds and organisms are also increasingly threatening ‘purity and integrity’ of several natural species, including plants, insects, bacteria, animals and human beings. Contamination is leading to changes in DNA through ingestion of modified food laden with toxins, viruses, POPs and dioxins.

3. Commercialisation

Scarce bio-resources are increasingly being commercialised and privatised. Public bio-resources which belong to local communities are being accessed by big corporate – Indian or multinational, through private investments, modern technologies and skewed policies. Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) obtained more through crooked methods are increasingly becoming tools of alienation of bio-resources from primary producers and traditional communities. Water has been privatised in many places. Plants, plant extracts, animals and their products and various other bio-resource based human consumption products are being commercialised, by disallowing access to communities and denial of traditional rights. Seeds, breeds, fruits, stems, leaves, tree barks, etc are increasingly becoming commercial commodities.

Even where biodiversity is not lost, access to biodiversity resources is being restricted by intellectual property rights (e.g. commercial patents on seeds), or conservation initiatives such as strict protected areas - which are noneleless opened for large scale commercial exploitation. Opening up forests for coal mining is only one such example. These pressures are making it ever harder for communities to secure their basic needs and continue their customary role and responsibilities as stewards of biodiversity.

Livelihoods and Communities

Because of these 3Cs, people and communities are losing incomes, losing livelihoods and becoming poorer by the day. There are two principal ways in which biodiversity and poverty are related. One is the degradation of biodiversity on which livelihoods depend, and the consequent escalation of poverty.  The other is the denial of access to biodiversity in the name of conservation in countries with western designed and influenced conservation regimes which remain a root cause for further entrenching poverty and denying access to livelihoods. The traditional resource use patterns in most societies have been within the regenerating capacity of the resource base. Ironically, communities living next to biodiversity rich areas and ecosystems of great significance often find themselves as the poorest segments of their societies.

Traditional rights of communities over resources are being usurped by law, policy and development. In 2012 and beyond, with the 3Cs becoming bigger and bigger threats, we will continue to face compounding biodiversity, food, fuel, economic and climate crises. Conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity is fundamental to addressing these crises, and charting a truly sustainable path for humanity.

Convention on Biodiversity should discuss the following:

1. Establishing and perpetuation of community rights over biodiversity and bio-resources, while keeping the Rights of Mother Earth as paramount.
2. Scrapping of applying Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) on all living beings & parts.
3. Establishing legal and administrative mechanisms to prevent contamination, over consumption and commercialisation of bio-resources.
4. Preventing entry of corporations from ‘commercialising’ agri-biodiversity and enabling sovereignty of farmers and local communities over farming and farming resources, especially seeds & breeds.

Principal features of Convention on Biodiversity

1. United States is not a party to this convention and two protocols (Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing)

However, most of the companies which benefit from getting access to bio-resources across the world belong to this country. Mega agrochemical and seed companies are based in US, and they are at the forefront of research, IPRs and investments related to germ-plasm and genetic resources.

2. Community access: There is no discussion on how indigenous communities would get access to genetic resources, which are being denied to them by various processes including development, mining, industrialisation and globalisation.

Mining in Andhra Pradesh has denied land, water and bio-resource access to adivasi communities, in districts of Srikakulam, Vijayanagaram, Vishakhapatnam, East Godavari, Adilabad, Karimnagar and Warangal.  It is the same in many other states, particularly with large resources and equally large deprived communities.

3. Prevention: There is as yet no legal or institutional mechanism on prevention of  or penalty for destruction of bio-resources by infrastructure projects, especially ports, roads, power projects and mega industries.  Only a passing mention in CBD’s article 14.2 about the liability is woefully inadequate.

Tourism projects, industrial parks, minor ports, gas piplines, SEZs, etc., are being established all along the coastal Andhra Pradesh. While India has signed CBD and its Protocols, it is yet to put in place legal and administrative mechanisms that prevent destruction of coastal environment.

4. Legal Framework: There is as yet no review of lack of implementation of CBD article 15.7 that commits Parties to create the necessary legislative, administrative or policy measures to realise the CBD provisions on access and benefit sharing, and take remedial measures.

Approvals to open field trials to various GM crops, and approval of Bt cotton without any bio-safety protocols indicate that CBD provisions are inadequate in dealing with the country-specific situation.

Our Demands:

• Take measures to ensure the Free & Prior Informed Consent (PIC) or approval and involvement of adivasis, tribal and local communities for access to traditional knowledge, and for access to genetic resources in their areas and take appropriate measures to empower these communities through legal & institutional frameworks..  The decision of how this is done is to be left to these communities.

• Set out criteria and/or processes for obtaining FPIC or approval and involvement of communities for access to genetic resources.

• Endeavour to support the development by communities, including women, of community protocols for access to traditional knowledge and equitable benefit-sharing.

• Take into consideration customary laws, community protocols and procedures in implementing their obligations on traditional knowledge.

• Evolve a legal framework for stiff penalties for damage /loss of biodiversity by industrial /infrastructural /commercial activities or projects;

• Apply the precautionary principle and take a strong position countering expansion of industries, mining, modern biotechnology, monoculture-plantations and industrial agro-fuels;

• Reject dangerous technologies associated with the GM crops and GM organisms;

• Continuing high green house gas emissions is accelerating global warming and climate change, which has increased the rate of extinction of biological species many fold. This must be immediately arrested & reversed, and CBD should strongly demand this from the UN climate negotiation process;

• COP should ask the Secretariat to create a mechanism to monitor the violations of various CBD provisions.

This calls for a paradigm shift in securing rights for development at household, community, regional and national levels, and globally, taking into account gender dimensions. Conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems must ensure that poverty eradication is a core component of their intervention initiatives including benefit sharing of the sustainable economic gains that accrue from such conservation and restoration initiatives of biodiversity.

We therefore call on Parties in COP11 to strengthen (not weaken) the Convention’s core principles – like the ecosystem approach, the precautionary principle, and an understanding that biodiversity cannot be separated from those humans who nurture, defend and sustainably use it.

In the background of India’s professed commitment to the three core principles of Convention of Biodiversity, government should immediately take up the following:

1. US companies should not be allowed to benefit from Cartagena and Nagoya Protocols of CBD, as US is not a party to CBD.
2. Cancel all approvals to large projects along the Indian coast , including thermal & nuclear power plants, ports, tourism, industrial parks, SEZs, which have adverse implications on bio-resources. This includes power projects at Sompeta, Kakrapalli, Paravada, Kovvada, Krishnapatnam and various other villages of Andhra Pradesh.
3. Review all approvals and legal framework from the perspective of protecting biodiversity across Andhra Pradesh.
4. Andhra Pradesh, and India, should include Prior Informed Consent (PIC) of all local communities as the first step in all developmental projects.

Withdraw all approvals to Bt cotton and other GM crop seeds field trials and seed production by applying precautionary principle, as