The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in collaboration with the State Biodiversity Board-Uttarakhand and GB Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development will be organising a three-day regional experts’ workshop on access to genetic resources and benefit sharing in the Hindu Kush Himalaya.
Delegates from India and abroad will be attending it which will be inaugurated by CM Harish Rawat in Dehradun on Tuesday.
Addressing the media here on Monday, SBB chairman Dr Rakesh Shah said that the workshop is aimed at learning from the experiences and expertise of the eight regional member countries- Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan.
“We have just learnt that the delegates from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will not be able to attend the workshop though delegates from Bhutan, China, Myanmar along with those from about half a dozen Himalayan States in India will be participating,” he said.
This is the first international workshop on access and benefit sharing in Uttarakhand ans is linked to a set of internationally accepted principles on the utilisation of genetic resources developed in the context of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and formalized in the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources.