THE ENVIRONMENT
Sierra Leone Holds National Bio-Safety Clearing House Workshop
By Ishmael Kindama Dumbuya
Jul 22, 2009, 14:31

Paticipants at The Workshop Including Government Officials Pose For The Press

The Ministry of Lands Country Planning and the Environment and the Sierra Leone Environment Protection Agency in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has on the 20th of July 2009 held a one day awareness raising workshop on the Sierra Leone Bio-safety Clearing House (BCH). The awareness raising workshop was held at the Miatta Conference centre and it was represented by environmental stakeholders, and members of the private sector.

A Bio-safety Clearing-House is hereby established as part of the clearing-house mechanism under Article 18, paragraph 3, of the Cartagena Protocol, in order to: Facilitate the exchange of scientific, technical, environmental and legal information on, and experience with, living modified organisms; and assist Parties to implement the Protocol, taking into account the special needs of developing country Parties, in particular the least developed and small island developing States among them, and countries with economies in transition as well as countries that are centres of origin and centres of genetic diversity.

The objective of this Protocol is to contribute to ensuring an adequate level of protection in the field of the safe transfer, handling and use of living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology that may have adverse effects on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health, and specifically focusing on trans-boundary movements.

Before the training session, the Chairman of the occasion who is also the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Lands, Country Planning and the Environment, J E Quee said “we are assembled here to mark another important milestone in making continuous efforts to fulfill one of our country’s obligations to the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety which is to ensure effective control of trans-boundary movements of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) or products resulting from modern biotechnology.”

He added that the Cartagena Protocol addressed Biosafety issues and the release of Living Modified Organisms also known as GMOs into the environment and aimed at establishing binding standards and clear procedures covering aspects of production, trans-boundary movements of LMOs and their products as well as the exchange of information on specific LMOs and Biosafety.

The Permanent Secretary stated that the workshop will therefore serve as a forum to create awareness on the use of the central portal of the Biosafety clearing house in order to access information on LMOs/GMOs and Biosafety issues.

A representative from the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security, Dr. Sam Sesay also noted that “the protocol seeks to protect local bio-diversity from the potential risks posed by LMOs resulting from modern biotechnology in other nations by establishing an Advance Information Agreement (AIA) procedure for ensuring that countries are provided with the information necessary to make informed decisions before agreeing to the import of such organisms into their territories.

The representative of the Minister made known that his ministry received recently a package of rice variants from the Republic of Gambia as a present from President Jammeh to the president of Sierra Leone. But he said these variants were rightly treated as foreign species to the country by subjecting to a series of investigations by the country’s trained scientists in SLARI in accordance with the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety of our local Biosafety diversity and the health of the people of Sierra Leone who are obviously going to use this valuable product from the Gambia.

He added that the Ministry is also concern about the application of the Protocol in other areas such as the use of fertilizers, nitrate fertilizers in particular which are very susceptible to leaching and contamination of the Sierra Leone water catchments.

The Minister of Lands Country Planning and the Environment, Dr. David Sandi said “our presence here firmly underscores governments’ concern for the effective implementation of the basic objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety which makes provision for the safe transfer, handling and use of Living Modified Organisms (LMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology applications that may have adverse effects on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity taking into account risks to human health and specifically focusing on trans-boundary movements”.

The Minister said that biotechnology is a new and promising tool that offers several opportunities to mankind for achieving sustainable development and the Millennium Development Goals. Some of its benefits are practical solutions to global problems of health care; enhance food security through sustainable agricultural practices, improving supply of portable water, support for sustainable methods of reforestation, waste treatment and natural resources utilization and conservation as well as environmental protection.

In the field of agriculture, the Minister of Lands said genetic manipulation therefore has produced a vast number of varieties and hybrids that have contributed immensely to higher grain yield, stability of harvest and farm income in developed countries.

In medicine, the use of biotechnology will provide better medical treatments and vaccines and it is now common that insulin on which millions of people around the world depend on is now produced through modern biotechnology. Today, living modified organisms are becoming part of an increasing number of products including foods and food additives, beverages, drugs, adhesives and fuels.

Dr. Sandi said the opportunities and concerns about biotechnology brings to the issue of Biosafety which is a term used to describe efforts to reduce and eliminate the potential risks resulting from biotechnology and its products.

He added that as a party to the convention on biological diversity in December 12 1994, Sierra Leone is required not only to meet the three basic objectives of the convention but to establish and maintain the means to regulate, manage or control risks associated with the use and release of GMOs which are likely to have an adverse environmental impacts that could affect the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity taking into account the risk to human health.

The Minister of Lands said the main objective of the Protocol is to “contribute to ensuring the adequate level of protection in the field of the safe transfer, handling and use of living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology that may have adverse effects on the conversation and sustainable use of biological diversity taking into account risks to human health and the environment and specifically focusing on trans-boundary movements’. There is no doubt that Sierra Leone would one day start to apply modern biotechnologies to eradicate poverty and boost food security for the growing population.

Although Sierra Leone is yet to become a party to the Biosafety protocol, the United Nations Environment Programme and the Global Environment facility have assisted Sierra Leone to develop the National Biosafety Framework (NBF) for the country. The NBF for Sierra Leone has three main components including a draft national Biosafety policy and bill which the Ministry of Lands has forwarded together with the Cartagena Protocol to the office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice for ratification. If this is implemented effectively, the Minister said the BCH will provide an important repository of up-to-date information on LMOs and Biosafety.

It will also enable to access in formation about the national laws, regulations and guidelines of other parties, other countries decisions and assessments relating to specific LMOs and ensure that all potential exporters of LMOs to their countries or those who wish to transport LMOs across their territory.