The head of a U.N. treaty on conserving biological diversity wants to see the adoption of a new protocol on the use of genetic resources in such sectors as pharmaceuticals, agriculture, horticulture, cosmetics and biotechnology at an October meeting in Nagoya.
Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, said recently in Tokyo he is hopeful that more than 190 parties to the treaty will agree in Nagoya on a "framework protocol with a clear road map" on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable benefit-sharing arising from their utilization.
The envisioned protocol should address how to handle "complex issues of definition, compliance, intellectual property rights and certificate of origin," he said.