The Andean Community's biodiversity program, BioCAN, held a workshop for authorities and project executors in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to exchange concepts and tools as the initial step in developing subregional guidelines on best practice in distributing benefits resulting from the use and trade in products derived from biodiversity.
12 July 2012: The Andean Community’s (CAN) biodiversity program, BioCAN, held a workshop aimed at sharing concepts and tools for improving the benefits of products derived from biodiversity and sustainable management of wild species. Participants addressed how best to organize pilot projects, with a focus on lessons learned, and discussed building a set of subregional guidelines on best practice in benefit sharing along the value chain for such products.
The workshop, attended by national authorities and executors of biodiversity projects in Amazonian regions of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, was held from 11-12 July 2012, at CAN Secretariat headquarters in Lima, Peru.
Among those institutions participating in the workshop were the Amazon Institute of Scientific Research (Sinchi), the Regional Development Institute of Bolivia’s University of San Andrés, Ecuador’s Chankuap Foundation, the Institute for Research in the Peruvian Amazon (IIAP), the Peruvian Foundation for the Conservation of Nature (Pronaturaleza), Ecuador’s Centro Lianas Foundation, and Peru’s Center for Addicts Rehabilitation and Research of Traditional Medicine – Takiwasi.
BioCAN, created in 2007 with funding from Finland, and in its second phase since June 2010, has the mission of contributing to the quality of life of CAN member countries in their Tropical Andes-Amazonian Regions “through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in an equitable manner respectful of cultural diversity.” [CAN Press Release (in Spanish)]