The State Department web site below is a permanent electronic archive of information released prior to January 20, 2001.  Please see www.state.gov for material released since President George W. Bush took office on that date.  This site is not updated so external links may no longer function.  Contact us with any questions about finding information. NOTE: External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein.

Biodiversity and the Convention on Biological Diversity Fact Sheet released by the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs U.S. Department of State, January 5, 1999

Biodiversity

Biological diversity -- the genetic heterogeneity of all the plant and animal species inhabiting the Earth -- represents the "raw material" for the world's agricultural and pharmaceutical industries. Organisms yet to be discovered or studied could hold the key to a future cure for some terrible disease, or their genetic material may be useful in improving crop pest resistance, yields, drought tolerance, and other traits which can be used to help feed the world's expanding population. U.S. agriculture has always depended on genetic material originating outside our borders for improving crop varieties. Agriculture and pharmacology are not the only beneficiaries of biodiversity. The products of our planet's diverse life forms provide the essentials of life for millions of people around the world -- from food, medicine, and fuel to hard currency from trade and ecotourism.

Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is the main international forum for addressing biodiversity issues. Its three objectives are conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components, and a fair and equitable sharing of the benefits of genetic resources. The CBD came into force in late 1993. The Conference of Parties (COP), which reviews the implementation of the CBD, now meets once every two years. Reporting to the COP is the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical, and Technological Advice (SBSTTA), which is tasked with providing advice on implementing the Convention. The SBSTTA meets twice in the two years between COP sessions. In November 1995, the COP also set up the Open-Ended Ad Hoc Working Group on Biosafety, which has been tasked with negotiating a protocol to regulate transboundary movement of living modified organisms (LMOs) that are products of modern biotechnology and may have adverse impacts on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. The current Executive Secretary of the CBD is Calestous Juma of Kenya. Dr. Juma chose not to renew his contract, which expired in October 1998, and a replacement has not yet been identified by UNEP. The CBD Secretariat is located in Montreal. The next CBD COP will be in Nairobi in May 2000. The CBD web site is at: http://www.biodiv.org.

The CBD was opened for signature at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro on June 5, 1992. Since then, 172 of the 183 countries in the United Nations system have ratified or otherwise acceded to it. The United States declined to sign the CBD in Rio due to concerns with its intellectual property rights (IPR), technology transfer, and finance provisions. Following a careful review of these concerns in consultation with NGOs and industry groups, President Clinton signed the CBD in June 1993 and sent it to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings and favorably reported out the Convention to the full Senate in June 1994. Additional concerns were raised about the effect the Convention might have on land use and agriculture in the U.S., which lead the Senate to curtail further consideration of the treaty.

The objectives of the CBD -- the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and the sharing of benefits derived from the use of genetic resources -- are of global importance. In addition, the U.S. agriculture, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries stand to suffer if the U.S. does not become a Party. They may lose access to genetic material used to improve crops and develop new agricultural and pharmaceutical products, as well as to markets for those products abroad.

The Parties to the CBD are currently negotiating a protocol on biosafety which focuses on the transboundary movement of products derived from biotechnology. The United States is committed to protecting biological diversity and environmental integrity. To that end, the United States is working to ensure that the regime established by the protocol is environmentally responsible, scientifically based and analytically sound, and will not unduly affect research and trade in beneficial biotechnology products. Certain provisions for the protocol advocated by some countries could result in the creation of an international biotechnology regime that imposes burdensome notification requirements prior to the shipment of all biotechnology products and permits refusal of their entry without a environmental or scientific rationale regardless of whether they pose an additional risk to biodiversity. Such a regime would impede trade in beneficial biotechnology products and would restrict new market opportunities for the agriculture and pharmaceutical industries. The U.S. is by far the single largest exporter of biotechnology products. By the year 2000, we anticipate that the majority of U.S. agricultural exports of staple commodities will consist of or be commingled with genetically modified exports. The value of U.S. exports that could be affected by a biosafety protocol is thus likely to be in the tens of billions of dollars. The final negotiating session for the Protocol will take place February 14-19, 1999 in Cartagena, Colombia, followed by a special session of the COP February 22-23 to approve the agreement as a protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

While U.S. ratification of the CBD would not necessarily guarantee successful results in the biosafety negotiations, it would put us in a much stronger position to advance U.S. interests in those negotiations.

The Administration is committed to ratification of the CBD. The Administration not only recognizes the global importance of striving to meet the conservation objectives of the CBD, but is critically aware of the negative impact that specific CBD-related activities may have on U.S. interests because the U.S. remains a non-Party.

[end of document]

Back to the Environment page. | Back to the OES Bureau Home Page. Return to the DOSFAN Home Page. | Return to the Secretary's Home Page. This is an official U.S. Government source for information on the WWW. Inclusion of non-U.S. Government links does not imply endorsement of contents.