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On 19 and 20 March 2025 a national workshop on biosafety legislation was held which gathered representatives of 12 different governmental institutions, as well as over 70 participants joining online, coming from nine countries of the Latin American region, which included participants from Bolivia, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and Paraguay.

Led and facilitated by the Development Law Service (LEGN), Mr Alejandro Vallejo Degaudenzi – National Biosafety Expert, and Ms Marina Hernández - Director of Biodiversity at the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the workshop was successful in strengthening the knowledge of participants on biosafety legislation.  A draft version of a global legal diagnostic tool for the implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CPB) was presented and participants engaged in preliminary discussions on legislative gaps and recommendations contained in the draft national legal assessment report on biosafety.

The workshop also benefited from international interventions that allowed to substantiate several critical matters for the Dominican Republic and learn from valuable experiences from countries in the region. Mr Austein McLoughlin, Programme Management Officer at the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD), discussed in depth the principles and approaches for living modified organisms risk assessment, their application in decision-making and key considerations for implementation under the CPB. Mr Alejandro Espinosa Calderón, Executive Secretary of the Mexican Inter-Secretarial Commission on Biosafety of Genetically Modified Organisms delved into biosafety governance through the experience of Mexico. Mr Alfonso Alberto Rosero, Technical Director of Seeds at the Colombian Agricultural Institute, expanded on the experience of Colombia related to biosafety risk assessment and governance.  

The workshop was made possible thanks to the Japan Biodiversity Fund through the SCBD, as part of project UNUN/GLO/1254/CBD-F “Strengthening Biosafety Legislation”. The project – implemented jointly with project UNUN/GLO/1249/UEP-F financed by the UNEP Montevideo Environmental Law Programme - aims to further knowledge and increase visibility on the role of legislation for biosafety, primarily through the development and broad dissemination of a diagnostic tool to analyse and identify gaps in national legislation to implement the CPB. The project also foresees the provision of technical legal drafting assistance to the Dominican Republic, Gabon, Saint Lucia and the Seychelles, while undertaking active efforts to reach additional countries through awareness-raising, capacity-building and outreach activities.

For more information, please contact Simon.Blondeau@fao.org