Welcoming the improvements made to the central portal of the Biosafety Clearing-House by the Secretariat, in line with the strategic objectives on information-sharing set out in the Strategic Plan for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety for the period 2011-2020,
Further welcoming the significant increase in the number of records, particularly summaries of risk assessments, registered by Parties in the Biosafety Clearing-House during the last two years,
Also welcoming the successful contribution of the Project for Continued Enhancement of Building Capacity for Effective Participation in the Biosafety Clearing-House (the BCH-II Global Project), funded by the Global Environment Facility and implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme,
Recalling the importance of providing, in a timely manner, complete and accurate information to the Biosafety Clearing-House, in accordance with paragraph 1 of
decision BS-V/2;
1.Requests the Executive Secretary to:
(a)Collect, through Biosafety Clearing-House national focal points and online tools made available in the Biosafety Clearing-House, feedback from Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations on existing capacity and experiences in using the Biosafety Clearing-House and the submission and retrieval of data, and to take this experience into account for future improvements to the Biosafety Clearing-House;
(b)Continue its collaboration with other biosafety databases and platforms (such as those of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) with a view to improving the utility of the Biosafety Clearing-House as a global mechanism for sharing information on biosafety;
(c)Continue to organize online forums and real-time online conferences on topics relevant to biosafety and the implementation of the Protocol and encourage Parties to make use of them; and
(d)Encourage greater use of the Biosafety Clearing-House to further promote and facilitate public awareness, education and participation of relevant stakeholders regarding the use of living modified organisms.
2.Urges Parties and invites other Governments to fulfil their obligations under the Protocol and the decisions of the meeting of the Parties, by updating all incomplete published national records with the mandatory fields required by the common formats;
3.Expresses gratitude to the Government of the Republic of Korea for its financial and technical contributions and for hosting subregional training workshops on the Biosafety Clearing-House and welcomes its offer to host a new training workshop, in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme.
