Is biodiversity treaty a hurdle to conservation research?

Is biodiversity treaty a hurdle to conservation research?

News:

1. According to Scientists, the Convention on Biological Diversity(CBD), of which India is signatory too, is hindering biodiversity research and preventing international collaborations.

Important facts:

2. This was revealed by scientists  in a communication published on June 28 in the journal Science, an international team of scientists-including professors at India’s Kerala Agricultural University and Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE).
3. 172 scientists from 35 countries have expressed support to a critique of the CBD.
4. The CBD  is aimed at conserving biological diversity, sustainably using biological components and fair and equitable sharing of benefits that may arise out of the utilization of genetic resources.
5. The latter was delineated in the Nagoya Protocol, which came into effect in 2014.
6. Seed Treaty:

• International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture or the “Seed Treaty”, could be used as a model of exchange of biological materials for non-commercial research.
• Seed treaty ensures worldwide public accessibility of genetic resources of essential food and fodder.
• Another solution may be to add an explicit treaty or annex in the CBD to promote and facilitate biodiversity research, conservation and international collaborations.
• Under government-approved international collaborative projects, material can be exchanged freely.
• There are also “facilitative processes” to send specimens for taxonomic identification to other countries.
• India is one of the 196 countries that has committed to the CBD and ratified it in February 1994.

CBD:

• The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) , also known as Biodiversity Convention, is a multilateral treaty.
• The Convention has three main goals including:

a. The conservation of biological diversity

b. Sustainable use of its components

c. The fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources.

• The Convention was opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro on 5 June 1991 and entered into force on 29 December 1993.
• At the 2010, 10^th Conference of Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity in October in Nagoya, Japan, the Nagoya Protocol was adopted