Biological diversity

The theme of the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Session of the GBF was “Using Biodiversity to Strengthen Livelihoods”. The Forum explored ways and means of integrating poverty alleviation considerations into local, national and regional actions aimed at conserving, using sustainably and sharing equitably the benefits of biodiversity.

Cooperation at the scale of entire mountain ranges, whether through formal agreements or regional institutions, is widely acknowledged to be desirable. The Caucasus, generally better known for conflict than cooperation, is a major centre of biological, landscape, and cultural diversity.

The Vietnam Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) was developed by the Ministry of Forestry and the State Committee of Science, in collaboration with WWF and UNDP. I was published in 1994 and approved by the government in 1995. This workshop was a critical assessment of the BAP's three years of implementation.

This pamphlet analyses how the aims of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and its provision for intellectual property rights (IPRs), interact with international trade rules, particularly in the issues of seeds and plant varieties