Current Activities
NEW! Online Forum resuming its activities from 20 January - 1 February 2020
See updated calendar of activities
Background
In its
decision CP-9/13, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP-MOP) established a process for the identification and prioritization of specific issues regarding risk assessment of living modified organisms (LMOs) for consideration by the COP-MOP. It was also decided to consider at COP-MOP 10 whether additional guidance materials on risk assessment are needed for (a) LMOs containing engineered gene drives, and (b) living modified fish.
The process agreed to in decision CP-9/13 entails the submission of views, the commissioning of studies, discussions through an online forum, work by an ad hoc technical expert group (AHTEG), consideration of the outcomes by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA), and recommendations by the SBSTTA to the tenth meeting of the COP-MOP.
In light of the above, the Secretariat has developed this page to host online discussions of the forum. The work of the forum is intended to assist the AHTEG on risk assessment. Accordingly, the discussions in the online forum will consider drafts of the studies that have been commissioned to inform the application of annex I of decision CP-9/13 to LMOs containing engineered gene drives and living modified fish.
Following these online discussions, the consultants will finalize the studies taking into account the comments made. The final studies will be made available for the meeting of the AHTEG on risk assessment. In addition, a report of the online forum discussions will be prepared by the CBD Secretariat and made available for the information of the meeting of the AHTEG.