“Biosafety Regulations in Latin America and the Caribbean within the Framework of the International Biosafety Protocol”

This multinational OAS project was initiated in March 2002 with aim of helping countries to overcome identified weaknesses as regards their capacity to implement the international biosafety protocol. It also aims to coordinate actions among participating countries in order to improve implementation of the protocol at the regional level.

The first phase of the project was initiated in Chile, Colombia and Peru and was focused on the evaluation of policies and national regulatory systems to inform the identification of needs and the development of a series of capacity-building workshops on biosafety. The second phase of the project extends activities to countries of Central America and the Caribbean including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Grenada, Jamaica, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago.

On the ground, the project will seek to elaborate specific proposals with a high level of consensus for the establishment of the Biosafety Protocol in the participating countries. This will involve the following:

1. an evaluation of the existing legal and institutional infrastructure for the enforcement of the clauses of the International Biosafety Protocol as well as consultations with the government authorities and stakeholders to engender a better legal and/or institutional infrastructure for biosafety;

2. the identification of the training needs of various social actors to make the Protocol operative; and

3. the planning and conduct of appropriate national and regional training seminar-workshops.

Project Co-ordinator

Dr. Lionel Gil
Coordinator General
Tel: 562- 678 6068 or 562- 678 6413
Fax 562 7356373
E-mail: lgil@machi.med.uchile.cl