Kabir Bavikatte (Natural Justice) participated in a consultation with negotiators and experts who were involved in the processes leading up to the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing. The consultation was held from February 13-15 in Chennai, India, and was organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Indian Ministry of Environment. Among other things, the consultation also looked at the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities in relation to genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge in the context of the Nagoya Protocol. The participants included representatives of key negotiating blocks who attended in their personal capacity. The outcomes of this consultation, collated into a report, will be the first step towards collating different views on the interpretation of the Nagoya Protocol and in the longer-term, aim to contribute to a guide to the Protocol.
