Gino Cocchiaro, Natural Justice, took part in the Validation Workshop on the AU Guidelines for the Coordinated Implementation of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing from the 11th to the 14th of August in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The workshop was attended by African government representatives, experts on access and benefit sharing, indigenous people and local community representatives.
The workshop produced a final policy framework and guidelines on access and benefit sharing, which will both be presented to the The African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) for adoption. Natural Justice provided assistance to the indigenous people and local community representatives attending the meeting to ensure that the text adequately reflected their calls for recognition of their customary laws, community protocols and procedures.
