UNEP first called on governments to consider an international legal instrument to protect biological diversity in 1987. Formal negotiations began in 1991 and concluded just before the Earth Summit. The Convention on Biological Diversity was signed in Rio by more than 150 countries and ratified by a sufficient number to enter into force on December 29, 1993. The first meeting of the parties to the convention was scheduled for November 1994.
Article I of the Convention on Biological Diversity states its objectives as the consecration of biological diversity, the sustainable use of the components of such diversity and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits of genetic resources through appropriate access and technology transfer. There is general agreement that plant and animal species are being lost at an alarming rate because of human destruction of natural habitats through rural development, urban sprawl, overharvesting, overfishing, air and water pollution, unsustainable mining and timber operations and conversion of tropical rain forests to agricultural use. Coral reefs and tropical rain forests, particularly rich in natural variety, are among the fragile ecosystems easily destroyed by the pressures of growing human populations. Some 40 million to 44 million acres of tropical forests are believed to disappear annually (UNDP Choices 12/93). Many life forms being lost within those ecosystems have not even been identified; scientists have named only about 1.4 million species in the world out of an estimated 10 million to 100 million (ibid.).
Countries that are parties to the convention commit themselves to develop national strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, to establish a system of protected areas for natural habitats, to facilitate access to genetic resources for environmentally sound uses by those in other countries and to share the benefits of commercial use of genetic resources with the countries providing those resources. Since most of the world's genetic diversity is found in developing countries but most pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies seeking to commercialize medical, agricultural, and industrial uses for genetic materials are based in industrialized countries, negotiations concerning international cooperation have been highly contentious.
Developing countries have been concerned that foreign corporations will raid their storehouses of biological resources and traditional knowledge and obtain patent protections for any commercially lucrative products, curtailing the rights of traditional users without providing any financial or technological benefits to the communities that discovered, preserved or cultivated the exploited life forms. But countries like the United States, with growing biotechnology industries, argue that patent protections are essential to firms undertaking expensive research and development projects to identify new medicines, disease-resistant crops and other useful innovations.
At Rio, US President George Bush refused to sign the convention because of concerns about the adequacy of patent protections and about provisions that seem to make compulsory the sharing of biotechnology. On Earth Day 1993, his successor, President Bill Clinton, did sign the convention, but the administration has not presented it to the US Senate for ratification while it completes an interpretive statement designed to emphasize the importance of patent protections and the voluntary nature of any biotechnology sharing. Related issues arise from provisions of the new GATT agreement that requires the parties to meet minimum standards in providing legal protections for intellectual property rights. Under the agreement, rights to plant varieties must be legally secured, whether through patents or through an alternative system.
Financing and technology transfer are critical elements of the bio convention. All parties agree to provide access to and transfer of technologies, including biotechnology, that are relevant to conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity (Article 16, par. 1). Recognizing the concentration of biological diversity in the developing countries and the fact that economic and social development and eradication of poverty are the overriding priorities of developing countries, the developed countries agree to provide new and additional financial resources to assist developing countries in implementing their biodiversity conservation plans (Article 20).
In May 1993, preparing for the implementation of the convention, UNEP's Governing Council established an intergovernmental Committee on the Convention on Biological Diversity (ICCBD), which held its first meeting in Geneva in October 1993. Here, much of the discussion centered on the convention's Article 21, which calls for a financing mechanism to provide grants to developing countries, with program priorities and eligibility criteria to be determined by the conference of the parties. The GEF was designated the interim financing institution for the period between the convention's entry into force and the first meeting of the conference of the parties-provided it was restructured in such way as to become more democratic and transparent (Article 39). Although at the October ICCBD meeting the industrialized donor countries expressed confidence that the GEF would be suitably restructured (Nongovernmental Liaison Service, E&D File, 12/93), agreement on the new form of government was not easily attained.
From A Global Agenda: Issues Before the 49th General Assembly of the United Nations, (excerpt from Environment and Sustainable Development, by Gail V. Karlsson). Copyright 1994 by the United Nations Association of the United States of America. Published by University Press of America, Inc.
