Pour COMIFAC

en coopération avec

ABS CEPA

Where do we stand?What do we have?

On what can we build?What do we still miss?

1. Political will at the international level to strengthen ABS CEPA (side event

WG 7).

2. A paper ("ABS Spoken Here?") with hypotheses and questions to help

guide the strengthening of ABS CEPA.

3. Initial input to those hypotheses and questions from two regional ABS

workshops (Senegal and Madagascar, 2008).

4. Results and recommendations from a special ABS CEPA workshop held in

Nairobi in March 2009, which brought together ABS and communication

experts.

5. Recommendations from the Task force meeting on ABS and CEPA in Bonn

6. The start of an "Information Kit" on the new ABS Portal provided by the

CBD.

7. Many other (interesting) publications on ABS for various audiences.

8. Initial collections of ABS case studies.

After a year of intense work to promote CEPA for ABS,

we have a lot that we can build on:

1. There is political will at the int'l level to strengthen CEPA

• Action Plan adopted at CBD COP 7 (2004): Calls for CEPA capacity

development.

• WG ABS 6 (2008): Parties underline the need for improved ABS information,

increased awareness and education of stakeholders at different levels.

• COP 9 Decision IX/12 (2008): Requests further elaboration of awareness

raising procedures and tools. Aim: to incorporate them into an international

ABS regime.

• COP 9 Decision IX/32 (2008): Invites Parties to provide support to regional

and subregional CEPA activities related to ABS, and calls for assisting Parties

in communicating ABS to relevant target groups, including decision makers,

policy makers and the general public.

• UNEP Executive Director underlined (2008) the need to translate ABS into

how it impacts people's work, wealth and health. Said it is a priority at UNEP

to partner with other organizations to bring ABS to the forefront of the CBD.

• CEPA Side event at WG7 in Paris (2008) very well attended. First time that

COP Bureau joined meeting on CEPA.

2. We have hypotheses and questions to help guide ABS CEPA

A small selection from the "ABS Spoken Here?" Paper, Oct 2008:Regarding: Some Hypotheses Some Questions

The Situation

• The ABS Community is very heterogeneous; lines between ‘inner’and ‘outer’ circles are unclear.

• Who needs to reach out to or communicate what with whom?

The Goal • The messages are not clear, and the target groups are not sufficiently well defined.

• Whose awareness or knowledge needs to be raised? For which purpose?

• What are the messages? Which message for which “target group”?

The Challenge

• ABS CEPA tends to address too many target groups at the same time.

• ABS CEPA tends to be very technical, using language that doesn’t easily ‘go down’.

• Who are priority target groups for ABS CEPA?

• What messages do those groups require, and what language is appropriate for them?

Building Blocks

• ABS requires multiple communication strategies.

• Which ABS issues lend themselves to centralized communication campaigns, and which issues require more decentralized approaches?

Bio-Industrie

national

Negotiators

Intermediaries

ILC

internationalStock breaders

NGOs

Int. Lawyers

Bot. Gardes Regional Govts

Media Gene BanksDecision makers

Consumers Women

UN Agencies

Research WIPO

Developmentpartners Universities

NP Agencies

Other Ministers

„broad public“

x,y,z...

?

ABS topics and players

Plant breeders

3. Participants at two regional ABS Workshops have come up

with tentative recommendationsJust one example from the resultsRegarding: Target Groups Interests Messages required

The Challenge

"Who are priority target groups for ABS CEPA? What messages do those groups require, and what language is appropriate for them?"

• Business Communities

• Profit, Continuity • How ABS contributes to long-term profitability and stability

• Policy Makers • Implementable legis-lation, Poverty alle-viation, Increased GDP

• How they can control ABS

• Researchers • New discoveries • How ABS helps them to create innovation

• NGOs / Civil Society • Improved Livelihoods, Sustainable Development, Cultural preservation, Participation

• How ABS supports good governance

• How advocacy can support ABS

• Resource Owners / Local communities

• Improved Livelihoods, Ownership, Participation, Food Security

• How they can participate in ABS

• What long-term benefits ABS will bring to them

4. Specific recommendations from ABS CEPA workshop in Nairobi

First workshop to focus on ABS CEPA, with a unique combination of

participants:

– 60 representatives from all African Regions encompassing ABS stakeholder

groups and experts, communication experts and journalists, SCBD, UNEP and

GTZ.

WS Objectives:

– Promote cooperation of ABS and communication experts; Develop

recommendations for communicating ABS on the political/admin level; Plan ABS

CEPA action towards Nagoya.

WS Results (please refer to the summary report in your folders):

– Specific recommendations to different stakeholders

• International Science; National Focal Points; Business/Producers;Indigenous and Local Groups; Developers of ABS Regulations; and the CBD Secretariat

in terms of

Pour COMIFAC

en coopération avec

With a View to COP 10 Beyond COP 10

= May fully feed into and

support= May partly feed into and

support

Legend

The ABC of ABS("ABS for Dummies")

1

Basket of Visual Products(Multi-Purpose Video,

Posters)

2

A Users' Guide for Organizing ABS Multi-

Stakeholder Events

3

Inspiring the Mediato Talk About ABS(Capacity Building

Workshops for Journalists and Editors)

4

Business Campaign

5

Informal Interventions to Support the Formal

Process

6

Taking Stock of and Recycling Existing Products(Clearing House on ABS CEPA)

7

Basket of Tools and Templates

(Toolkit for the National

Level)

8

5. Project Architecture of ABS CEPA approach (Bonn TF meeting)

6. There is an Information Kit on the CBD's new ABS Portal(http://www.cbd.int/abs/ir/infokit.shtml; please refer to printouts in your folders)

Four 2-pagers with concise information on

• Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS)

• Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) – Main achievements

• "Nagoya Roadmap" towards an International Regime

on Access and Benefit-Sharing in 2010

• Frequently Asked Questions on Access and Benefit-

Sharing (ABS)

7. There are many other interesting publications on ABS, targeting a variety of audiences.

• A small selection of interesting examples:

8. There are case studies being collected on web page, books and even on film

9. There other valuable, more general CBD CEPA resources

which may be adapted and used for ABS

• In particular, the CBD "Toolkit on Communication,

Education and Public Awareness"

There are lots of resources …

... so what is missing?

We might have a clue about the variety of our CEPA

target groups and that we want them to know

about ABS

but we have less an ideas what specifically

we want them to know about ABS

and we have no strategy what we want

them to do about ABS (attitude / behavioral change and impact of CEPA for ABS)

An attempt of a synopsis

In particular, there is still some desired impact missing

Int'l level National

levelLubricate international negotiations ��� �

Positively influence stakeholder attitudes in international

negotiations (reduce fears, increase cooperativeness)

��� ��

Strengthen political will beyond environmental actors ��� ��

Promote development and implementation of effective

national ABS legislation

� ���

Get relevant sector ministries on board �� ���

Involve stakeholder communities (business/producers;

local and indigenous groups; academics; etc.)

� ���

Etc. ? ?