THE MINISTRY of Land and Environment will, this year, continue its effort to prepare a national biodiversity framework with a $3 million allocation made available in the 2003/04 estimates of expenditure tabled in the House of Representatives recently.
This is being done through the national biosafety project, which started in April 2002 and is being funded by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the Government of Jamaica.
The money will be used to fund the main elements of the framework, which include a regulatory system, an administrative system, a decision-making system that includes risk assessment and management and mechanisms for public participation and information.
During this fiscal year, phase two of the project will seek to achieve the following objectives: access to relevant information for all stakeholders in accordance with the requirements of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety; development of national biosafety and linkages to the biosafety clearing house; and identification of the component of the biosafety framework, in consultation with all relevant stakeholders.
Phase three will be expected to produce a draft of legal instruments, including guidelines, as appropriate; systems for risk assessment and management, including audit; publications of inventories, reports of national meetings, draft and/or a final national biosafety framework, and identification of country needs and mechanisms for participation in the biosafety clearing house.
Phase one of the project consisted of preparatory activities and gathering of the necessary information. The project, which was scheduled for completion in March 2004, has been further extended.
