Raising awareness about the use of genetically modified organisms

On March 25 in Hanoi, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment coordinated with the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety) to organize an Asia regional training workshop on raising awareness and community participation on the safe transportation, handling and use of genetically modified organisms to implement the Decision of the COP - MOP5 meeting as well as Article 23 of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.

29 countries in the region such as Cambodia, Indonesia, Korea, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, China, Philippines, Vietnam... attended the Conference.

According to Deputy Director General of the Vietnam Environment Administration Nguyen The Dong, this is an opportunity for delegates to meet, share experiences in related fields, and discuss strategies to enhance regional and sub-regional cooperation to implement the work program.

Illustration photo.

This is also an opportunity for countries to improve their understanding of the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress, as well as explore the possibility of ratifying and implementing the Supplementary Protocol.

The workshop focused on discussing groups of issues such as: General information on biodiversity of countries in the region; biodiversity management in countries in general, biodiversity management in Vietnam in particular; general information on genetically modified organisms in the world and in Vietnam; introduction of international and regional legal frameworks on raising awareness and public participation, including principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and the implementation of this principle in Asia-Pacific; Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Legal Access; environmental issues and regulations for the content of genetically modified organisms.

In addition, delegates were also provided with information and equipped with knowledge to effectively develop strategies and plans to communicate targeted messages, effectively use media to promote awareness of biosafety; support the public in accessing information, and form networks to raise awareness and public participation on genetically modified organisms.

At the 5th Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP-MOP5), countries adopted the Work Programme on raising awareness, education and public participation in the safe transport, handling and use of genetically modified organisms. At the same time, COP-MOP5 also requested countries to apply the Work Programme in implementing Article 23 of the Cartagena Protocol, sharing experiences and related lessons...

The workshop took place over 5 days, from March 25-29./.

The (TTXVN) - VT