A GEF/UNEP/IICA workshop brought together international experts with key officials from Costa Rica's agriculture, health and environment ministries to discuss criteria they should incorporate in their national biosafety framework to evaluate and manage living modified organisms (LMOs) as part of Costa Rica's implementation of the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol.
24 February 2012: A three-day workshop sponsored by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Inter-American Institute for Agricultural Cooperation (IICA) brought together Costa Rican officials with biosafety experts from other Latin American countries to discuss policy approaches to risk evaluation and management regarding living modified organisms (LMOs).
The workshop was held from 22-24 February 2012, at IICA headquarters in the Costa Rican capital of San José.
During the workshop, officials from Costa Rica’s agriculture, environment and health ministries discussed the regulatory experiences and perspectives of other Latin American countries, and specific criteria recommended for evaluating biotechnology projects, with three international experts: Gutenberg Delfino de Sousa, a member of Brazil’s National Biosafety Technical Commission (CTNBio); Sol Ortiz García, of Mexico’s Inter-ministerial Commission on Biosafety of Genetically Modified Organisms (CIBIOGEM); and Fernando Carlos Zelaschi of the Biosafety Directorate of Argentina’s Ministry of Agriculture.
The workshop is part of a broader project, funded by the GEF and executed by UNEP, with assistance from IICA, the specialized agency of the Organization of American States (OAS), to protect biodiversity by fulfilling Costa Rica’s obligations as a party to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and implementing the country’s National Biosafety Framework for the safe management of LMOs. [IICA Press Release (Spanish)]