6 December 2017: Japan became the fourtieth country to ratify the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, thus achieving the Supplementary Protocol’s participation threshold for entry into force. The Supplementary Protocol will enter into force on 5 March 2018, ninety days after Japan’s ratification on 5 December 2017.

Adopted in 2010 during the fifth Meeting of the Parties to the Biosafety Protocol (COP-MOP 5) in Nagoya, Japan, the Supplementary Protocol provides rules and procedures in the field of liability and redress in relation to living modified organisms (LMOs). Among other rules, it requires Parties to take response measures in the event of damage arising from transboundary movements of LMOs or where there is sufficient risk of damage in the absence of response measures.

CBD Executive Secretary Cristiana Paşca Palmer described the Supplementary Protocol’s entry into force as major step towards achieving the Biosafety Protocol’s Strategic Plan and the conservation of biodiversity, urging all CBD Parties to ratify the Biosafety Protocol and the Supplementary Protocol.

The Cartagena Protocol was adopted in 2003 and currently has 171 Parties. Article 27 of the Protocol specifies that its first COP-MOP shall adopt a process to elaborate international rules on liability and redress. Initiated at COP-MOP 1 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the negotiations for such rules spanned five years resulting in the adoption of the Supplementary Protocol. With Japan’s ratification, the Supplementary Protocol now has 41 Parties, including the EU, which does not count towards the participation threshold for its entry into force. [CBD Press Release][List Supplementary Protocol Parties]