Ministers and high-ranking representatives of the “Like-Minded Megadiverse” countries assembled from 27-29 November 2002 in Cusco, Peru, to discuss access to genetic resources, traditional knowledge and intellectual property rights.

The ministerial meeting attended by officials from Bolivia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, South Africa and Venezuela was preceded by an expert meeting on access and benefit sharing. The high-level representatives agreed, inter alia, to formulate a strategy and action plan to develop joint coordination, to establish a mechanism for cooperation and exchange of information among their countries, to establish an ad hoc working group on mechanisms for fair and equitable sharing of benefits derived from the use of biodiversity and associated traditional knowledge, and to urge the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity to initiate the negotiations for an international regime on benefit sharing, called for by the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The full text of the Cusco Declaration is available at: http://www.comunidadandina.org/ingles/document/cusco29-11-02.htm