About 2,000 delegates from more than 150 countries, including heads of Governments and policy makers, will attend the sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties beginning October 1.
The meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP MOP 6), or the Convention on Biological Diversity, will discuss and adopt further decisions to contribute to ensuring the safe transfer, handling and use of living modified organisms, resulting from modern biotechnology.
These will include decisions to advance the implementation of the 10-year Strategic Plan for the Protocol adopted in 2010. The decisions at the meeting would help make biological diversity adequately protected from any adverse effects of living modified organisms.
The convention will be held at Hyderabad International Convention Centre at Madhapur. Elaborate security arrangements have been made for its smooth conduct. The Andhra Pradesh Government has given permission to Telangana Joint Action Committee to hold Telangana March on the Necklace Road on Sunday to avoid friction on the eve of the international meet.
The Cartagena Protocol Biosafety was adopted on January 29, 2000, and came into force on September 11, 2003. The Nagoya – Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress was adopted at the last meeting of the Parties in Nagoya (Japan) in 2010.
“At the five-day meeting, delegates are expected to discuss issues relating to capacity-building, the Biosafety Clearing-House, the financial mechanism and resources for the Protocol’s implementation, risk assessment and risk management and socio-economic considerations concerning living modified organisms,” a statement said here on Sunday.
Meanwhile, scientists and non-governmental organisations, which are opposing domination of multinational firms working on Genetically Modified technologies, have announced a parallel conference.
They will be holding a three-day People’s Biodiversity Festival to propagate sustainable agricultural methods.