UN grants $12.5m to bolster biodiversity in Vietnam

VietnamNet 12 Nov 15;

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has passed a project that ensures equitable sharing of benefits from genetic resources and targets conservation work and sustainable use of biodiversity in Viet Nam.

The project is titled, "Capacity building for the ratification and implementation of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits in Viet Nam".

The project uses a non-refundable aid of US$12.5 million from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) via the Global Environmental Fund (GEF).

It will be implemented in Ha Noi and northern Lao Cai Province in four years.

The project's target is to contribute to the conservation work and sustainable use of biodiversity in Viet Nam by increasing the nation's competency in implementing the protocol and ensuring equitable sharing of benefits from genetic resources.

Major results gained from the project include establishment and improvement of a policy system related to management of and access to genetic resources and sharing of benefits, assistance in building a genetic resource access mechanism, increase in awareness of genetic access and sharing of benefit, and implementation of private-public partnership model in genetic access.

Viet Nam is scheduled to issue sufficient legal frameworks for accessing genetic resources and fairly and equitably sharing benefits arising from their utilisation (ABS) by 2017, establish an ABS model in 2018, and complete a national data system on genetic resources in 2020.

In recent years, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has focussed on information summation and international co-operation exchanges on the matter.

Viet Nam issued the Law on Bio-Diversity in 2008 and a relevant guidance decree in 2010.
VNS