Environmental Risk Assessment Workshop of LMOs

 In November 2000, the 16th GEF Council approved the "Initial Strategy for assisting countries to prepare for the entry into force of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety"(GEF/C.16/4). The main objectives identified in the strategy were:

1. assist countries in implementing the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety through the development and implementation of their national biosafety frameworks,

2. promote information sharing and collaboration, especially at the regional and subregional level, and

3. promote collaboration with other organizations to assist capacity-building for the implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.

At the same meeting the GEF Council also approved the UNEP/GEF Global Project entitled "Development of National Biosafety Frameworks", aimed at :

• assisting up to 100 eligible countries to prepare their national biosafety frameworks , and

• promoting regional and sub-regional collaboration and exchange of experience on issues of relevance to the national biosafety frameworks.

Trinidad and Tobago having acceded to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity on October 5th 2000 is a part of the UNEP/GEF Global Project. Trinidad and Tobago is now in Phase 2 of this 3-part project. For further details contact, Dr. Bibi Shanza-Ali, the national project co-ordinator at npcbiosafety@yahoo.com .

One of the components of this phase is a Training workshop on Environmental Risk Assessment of LMOs in tropical environments. This workshop was successfully implemented by NIHERST with the sponsorship of UNEP/GEF. Twenty-two specialists and technical officers from the UWI, the EMA, CAB International, NIHERST and the ministries of health, the environment, agriculture, legal and consumer affairs benefited from training, which was conducted by internationally recognised experts, Dr Robert Frederick of the US EPA and Dr Patricia “Muffy” Koch from Agbios, Canada.

Workshop had as its objectives the following:

1. To train a cadre of professionals in the environmental release of LMOs and their products including the methods, techniques, standards, indicators and guidelines for assessing, monitoring and controlling the environmental risks posed by the transfer, handling and use of LMOs and their products.

2. To train scientists and technical experts in the techniques to deal with the safe transfer, handling, use and identification of LMOs that may have adverse effects on biological diversity, and the environment.

The workshop complimented previous training provided in January 2003 by Drs. Patricia Traynor and Hector Quemada under a project funded by the UN Perez Guerrero Trust Fund, the IDRC, and ACP-EU CTA.