UNCTAD launched the BioTrade Initiative (BTI) in 1996 “...to contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity through the promotion of trade and investment in BioTrade products and services in line with the objectives and principles of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)”.
This report documents a BTI initiative in Lao People’s Democratic Republic which is part of a subregional collaboration between UNCTAD and Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, and Viet Nam.
The UNCTAD-Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation collaboration is developed under the UNCTAD Global BioTrade Programme, and Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation project “BioTrade: Ethical Trade in Plant-Based Resources”, both of which are funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO. Lao People’s Democratic Republic had not regulated ABS and related traditional knowledge as of late 2018.
Thus, BTI commissioned a study to provide inputs and guidance to the Government of Lao People’s Democratic Republic and national ABS stakeholders, to develop sample model clauses for eventual ABS or BioTrade contracts to be used in the country.
This report is based on an assessment of a prior national undertaking that developed a draft policy and decree on ABS and BioTrade, as well as on the responses of questionnaires and interviews conducted jointly with the Biotechnology and Ecology Institute (BEI) of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), which is the competent national authority for ABS in Lao People’s Democratic Republic.
Finally, the study also considered examples of ABS contracts and guidelines for ABS contracts currently being used in other countries and regions including those from UNCTAD BTI experience in Peru as well as inputs from a Lao national expert in commercial law. Afterwards, BEI convened a consultation on the draft model clauses that was held in Vientiane, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, on 1 November 2019.
