5th Pan-African Stakeholder ABS Workshop in Morocco

Credit: European Forest Institute.

This week, Kabir Bavikatte, Sabine Zajderman, and Johanna von Braun (Natural Justice) have been attending the 5th Pan-African Stakeholder Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Workshop organized by the ABS Capacity Development Initiative for Africa. This is the first stakeholder meeting after the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was adopted at the 10th Conference of the Parties to the CBD in October. With the Protocol in place, the key objectives of this meeting are to identify challenges that African States face with respect to implementing the Protocol at the domestic level. Participants explored national and regional concerns, knowledge gaps, and key priorities for the Protocol's implementation, and discussed relevant capacity development needs. Participants also spent a day exploring in great detail a national bioprospecting case study relating to Morocco's famous Argan tree (pictured), which is used for its nutritious oil both for food and skin care.