On February 12-14 PhytoTrade Africa and The ABS Capacity Development Initiative for Africa, aided by Natural Justice, invited
stakeholders of Southern African countries to discuss and identify good ABS
policies and best practice on the basis of a number of regional value chain
assessments.
One challenge in implementing the Nagoya Protocol has been
to design strong and effective regulations while ensuring a business friendly
regulatory environment that can attract investment in the sector and ensure its
viability. Insights from already existing value chains and operating businesses
across the region are highly useful in aiding governments in their efforts to
design such national legislations, while ensuring that they simultaneously
compliment and contribute to national development plans and objectives.
Bringing together more than thirty governmental and
non-governmental experts from across Southern Africa, along with
representatives from industry, the two-day workshop assessed value chains on
baobab, devil’s claw, kigelia and marula in Malawi, South Africa and Namibia.
