Rich and poor nations were poised to forge an ambitious pact to protect threatened ecosystems yesterday after breaking a deadlock over genetic treasures derived from places such as the Amazon.
The meeting in the central Japanese city of Nagoya aimed to produce a roadmap of 20 goals to be achieved over the next decade to contain humankind’s destruction of nature and save the world’s rapidly diminishing biodiversity.
Delegates from more than 190 countries had agreed to most of the goals during 12 days of tense negotiations.
However, a dispute over “fairly sharing” genetic resources, which are mostly found in rainforests and other species-rich habitats in developing countries, had held up an over-arching accord.
After frantic last-minute negotiations, Japan announced hours before the summit was to end that there had been significant progress with countries representing various regional blocs agreeing to a deal.
“A draft decision has been agreed upon by representatives of regional groups,” Japanese Environment Minister Ryu Matsumoto told delegates.
However, negotiators cautioned that each individual country still needed to approve the proposed “Access and Benefits Sharing Protocol” — and there could be yet another dip in the roller coaster ride seen during the summit.
“Getting closer to a deal in Nagoya ... but it’s not over yet,” European environment commissioner Janez Potocnik said in a message posted on Twitter.
A final plenary session in which, delegates hoped, the protocol and 20-point strategic plan would be adopted was set to begin shortly after 9pm.
Brazil, home to much of the Amazon basin and its global treasure trove of genetic resources, had insisted throughout the summit that it would not agree to the strategic plan unless there was also a deal on the protocol.
Brazil and other developing countries argue rich nations and companies should not be allowed to freely take genetic resources such as wild plants to make medicines, cosmetics and other products for huge profits.
The protocol would ban so-called “biopiracy” and outline how countries with genetic resources would share in the benefits of the assets’ commercial development by pharmaceutical and other companies.
The 20-point plan would commit countries to curbing pollution, setting aside areas of land and water for conservation, protecting coral reefs and ending so-called “perverse subsidies” for environmentally destructive industries.
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