Decision on the continuation of the first extraordinary meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity

The Conference of the Parties,

Recalling paragraph 3 of Article 19 of the Convention, by which the Parties are required to consider the need for and modalities of a protocol setting out appropriate procedures, including, in particular, advance informed agreement, in the field of the safe transfer, handling and use of any living modified organism resulting from biotechnology that may have adverse effect on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity,

Recalling also its decision II/5 of 17 November 1995 on consideration of the need for and modalities of a protocol setting out appropriate procedures, including, in particular, advance informed agreement, in the field of the safe transfer, handling and use of any living modified organisms, by which it agreed to begin a negotiation process to develop a protocol to address the concerns of Parties on those matters,

Recalling further its decision IV/3 of 15 May 1998, by which it agreed to hold an extraordinary meeting of the Conference of the Parties to address all matters relating to adoption of the protocol on biosafety and preparations for the first meeting of the Parties to the Protocol,

Noting the reports of the first five sessions of the Open-ended Ad Hoc Working Group on Biosafety,

Having considered with appreciation the report of the sixth session presented to it by the Chair of the Open-ended Ad Hoc Working Group on Biosafety,

Recognizing that a number of issues remain unresolved before the adoption of the protocol on biosafety,

1. Decides to suspend the first extraordinary meeting of the Conference of the Parties;

2. Decides to request the President of the first extraordinary meeting of the Conference of the Parties and the Bureau of the fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, in close consultation with the Executive Secretary, to decide on the date and venue of the resumed session of the first extraordinary meeting to be held as soon as practicable and, in any event, no later than the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties;

3. Decides further that the protocol on biosafety shall be called the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity;

4. Decides further to transmit the text of the draft protocol set out in appendix I to the report of the sixth meeting of the Open-ended Ad Hoc Working Group on Biosafety¹, as well as the statements with respect to the text of the draft protocol contained in that report, to the Conference of the Parties at the resumed session of its extraordinary meeting;

5. Stresses the importance of concentrating at the resumed session on reaching a satisfactory resolution on the core issues and related issues as contained in the draft report of the first part of the meeting²;

6. Affirms its determination to complete the negotiation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety for its adoption at the resumed session of the first extraordinary meeting of the Conference of the Parties;

7. Approves the amount of 480,000 United States dollars supplementary to the programme budget for the biennium 1999-2000 for the resumed session of the extraordinary meeting of the Conference of the Parties, to be funded from savings and surpluses from the BY Trust Fund;

8. Calls upon the Parties and States to provide voluntary contributions to the relevant trust funds of the Convention to cover the cost of the resumed session, including facilitation of participation in the resumed session by developing country Parties, in particular the least developed and small island developing States among them, and Parties with economies in transition.