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Regional Biosafety Workshop
30 November – 4 December 2009 Bangkok, Thailand
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Workshop documents
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Background
Advances in modern biotechnology, often referred to as genetic
engineering, despite their great potential for significant improvement
in crop production and agricultural development have also triggered
debates on their positive and negative impacts on the environment and
human health. Although the potential area of concern is the unintended
changes in the biological diversity, there are also non-safety issues
of concern like socio-economic consequences and ethical issues. It
reminds us that tools and techniques derived from the rapid advancement
of modern biotechnology must be used and developed with adequate safety
measures for environment and human health.
Biosafety measures came into the scene to describe efforts to reduce
and eliminate the potential risks resulting from application of
biotechnology and its products. It encompasses
policies/laws/acts/decrees/regulations/rules that are required to
ensure that products developed through the application of modern
biotechnology tools and techniques are safe for environment and human
health. Biosafety measures are still evolving by
redefining/revising/refining/incorporating new rules and regulations in
the existing procedures, coming out from the research/case studies and
practical application, of these measures at the ground levels, In view
of that different countries are at different stages of its development
and application.
Development and implementation
of biosafety measures that are prerequisites for development and
application of modern biotechnological tools and techniques for crop
improvement require effective institutional capacity for assessment of
their impact on environment and human health. Development of in country
expertise is essential to make locally appropriate and timely
decisions. All these emphasize the importance of developing biosafety
capacity at country level as well as at regional level.
The context for biosafety measures has dramatically changed in the
backdrop of rapid expansion of the genetically modified crops since
their introduction in early 1990s. In 2009, more than 125 million
hectares were grown worldwide, with 40 percent in developing countries.
Thus development of biosafety expertise, Policies and procedures can be
stepping stone to facilitate improved biosafety for all aspects of crop
improvement and agricultural development. The early a country plans to
adopt biosafety measures, the early it can reap the benefit of
biotechnology and there is less danger from any harmful effects out of
it.
FAO has been assisting its member countries
since 1999 to develop country capacity with an aim to develop their own
biosafety legislations and set up regulatory bodies as an effort to
reduce and eliminate potential risks resulting from biotechnology and
its product. In addition to that FAO is also helping in harmonizing
biosafety regulations at the sub-regional, regional and global level.
As biosafety measures are evolving based on the field and practical
experience and learning across the world, FAO is helping member
countries to stay updated on the latest development in this field and
developing strong networking among these countries so they can reap
benefits of it. As a part of this important initiative, FAO is planning
to arrange a week long biosafety workshop with following specific
objectives:
Objectives
1. Updating participants on the most recent advancements of biosafety.
2. Specific collaborative needs for further strengthening and
operationalization of “AsianBionet” network are identified; and
3. Participating countries are appraised on the latest
development in this field and participants are provided with most new
technical information on biosafety and their
knowledge and technical capacity in biosafety are enhanced.
Content
The goal is to engage participants and encourage the sharing of
experience in order to gain new perspectives and ideas for enhancing
country-specific current biosafety programmes and networking. The
workshop will focus on theoretical and practical issues on biosafety
including laboratory tools and techniques used for the improvement of
crop and agricultural products.
Participants
All 10 focal points-China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, The
Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, SriLanka and Malaysia-of the
previous project “GCP/RAS/185/JAN-Capacity building in biosafety of GM
crops in Asia” along with one officer, working directly in the
biotechnology laboratory will be invited to participate. In addition,
governments of Japan, Cambodia, Laos, Republic of Korea and Myanmar
will be requested to send participants from their respective countries
to attend the workshop. As a host country, 10 participants from
Thailand will be invited. A total of 40 participants are expected. |
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