CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC—St. Lucia launched a project on Tuesday to enhance the enabling environment for effectively implementing the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) in the country.
The “Strengthening Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) policies and institutional frameworks through demonstrable models in Saint Lucia” was launched in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
“I wish to thank our project partners for entrusting IUCN with the execution of the project and applaud the leadership from the government of St. Lucia for the decisive efforts to enhance fair and equitable access and benefit sharing,” said Rodrigo Flores Gutiérrez, IUCN-ORMACC Regional Programme Manager.
“We are certain that through these joint actions, the project can make an important contribution to making equitable and sustainable access and benefit-sharing mechanisms operational in St. Lucia, improving its people’s well-being and supporting the country’s sustainable development,” he added.
The US$1.59 million project is being funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
Genetic resources from plants, animals, and microorganisms provide various products and services essential to human well-being. They are the basis for the development of medicine, biotechnology, personal care and cosmetics, textiles, and many other products, making genetic resources a highly valuable commodity worldwide.
Like many of its Caribbean neighbors, St. Lucia faces multiple challenges when it comes to safeguarding its biodiversity and ensuring that effective protocols exist to facilitate and regulate the sustainable access and equitable benefit sharing of its biological resources. Often, local communities, the primary custodians of these genetic resources, are not systematically included in the decision-making process about their resources, nor do they benefit from their extraction and use.
The government says the project aims to address these challenges by implementing strategic actions, which include the strengthening of the legislative and policy framework on ABS, establishing an effective permitting and monitoring framework on genetic resources, conducting scientific research and commodity pilots on the ground, as well as sharing knowledge and lessons learned in the process.
The project follows a multi-sectoral approach promoting collaboration with key stakeholders from the Ministries of Agriculture and Health, the Attorney General’s Chamber, other institutions, research facilities, and conservation organizations.
It also envisages direct support to local communities by creating business and capacity-building models to improve ABS opportunities for at least 1,100 people.
“St. Lucia possesses a high degree of biodiversity, species endemism, and productive coastal and nearshore habitats, earning international recognition as a biodiversity hotspot. “St. Lucia has over 200 endemic species, and its waters support several globally and regionally important habitats and species,” said Mrs. Anita Montoute, Permanent Secretary in the Department of Sustainable Development.
“I am, therefore, extremely pleased that we are taking steps, through this project, to establish a mechanism that will facilitate the effective utilization of our valuable biodiversity and the traditional knowledge associated with it,” she added.
At the global level, the Nagoya Protocol, a supplementary agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity, governs ABS, emphasizing that genetic resources are the property of the sovereign states in which they are found.
The Protocol also establishes how governments shall ensure Prior Informed Consent from the relevant indigenous and local communities within the country that possess traditional knowledge of genetic material.
Additionally, it provides guidelines for reaching mutual agreements on how to share the benefits arising from the use of these genetic materials. Saint Lucia has been a party to the Protocol since 2022.
Programme Officer / Task Manager at the GEF Caribbean biodiversity portfolio at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Dr. Christopher Cox, said that UNEP is pleased to partner with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to assist the government and people of St.Lucia in safeguarding the country’s indigenous biodiversity.
“Its flora and fauna, and traditional knowledge over its use, and that benefits from their sustainable use can be realized by communities committed to protect and conserve these resources,” he said.
The initiative is led by St. Lucia’s Department of Sustainable Development in partnership with IUCN as the executing agency and the UNEP as the Implementing Agency.
This four-year project will work towards four complementary goals, namely strengthening the national policy, legislative, and institutional frameworks for operationalizing the Nagoya Protocol for ABS and developing an effective permitting and monitoring framework for ABS protocols by provisions of the Nagoya Protocol.
In addition, it will establish demonstrable commodity pilots to test the operationalization of ABS protocols toward sustainable management and equitable benefits of genetic resources and scale-up in future commercial applications. It will also enhance knowledge management on ABS to support decision-making, stakeholder engagement, and buy-in systems.
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