A New project on Nagoya Protocol Implementation has been launched.

Strengthening human resources, legal frameworks, and intuitional capacities to implement the Nagoya protocol ( The UNDP/ GEF Project), anew project that aims at assisting countries in the development and strengthening of their national ABS frameworks has been launched on July 26 2017, at Addis Ababa.

Mr. Abraham Assefa, Representative of General Director of Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute, noted that Ethiopia has become a member of Mega Diversity Countries in the world.

He also pointed out biological diversity is the base for economic prosperity and other aspects of human welfare at household and national level.

“The implementation of the basic measures of the Nagoya protocol in the participating countries will generate a wide range of monetary and non-monetary benefits for providers of genetic resources”, said Mr. Abraham.

This will help countries get all the benefits from their biodiversity through fulfilling the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), he indicated.

UNDP Regional Technical Adviser, Mr. Fouad Bergigui introduced the access and benefit sharing regime under the Nagoya protocol. And said that the project helps Nagoya protocol to be implement and assure the benefit sharing within the countries the provider of the genetic resources and the users.

As Mr Fouad explanation the project will be implemented for 3 years in 24 countries including Ethiopia. Legislative and institutional measures should be taken to implement the Nagoya protocol, He remarked.

Mr. Ashenafi Ayenew, Director, Genetic Resource Access and Benefit Sharing Directorate (EBI) on his part said, the project will strengthen the country institutional and legal framework.

Mr Ashenafi also said the project will also build trust between users and providers of genetic resources to facilitate the identification of biodiscovery efforts and strengthening the capacity of indigenous and local communities to contribute to the implementation of the Nagoya protocol.

The project supported by United National Development Program (UNDP) and Global Environmental Fund (GEF).