• Baobab trees, which can live for 3,000 years, were uprooted in Kilifi to be replanted in a national park owned by a politician in Georgia.
• Kenya and other parties in Montreal note that it is now possible to plunder the country’s resources without even moving a single physical sample.
Image: John Muchangi
Last month, Kenya successfully stopped the illegal export of uprooted baobab trees to Georgia, following an outcry.
President William Ruto commented that the exports were probably being done with disregard to the Nagoya protocol, which directs local communities must benefit when natural resources around them are exploited.
This is one of the most contentious topics that countries are discussing at the ongoing 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Montreal, Canada.
Although the baobab species found in Kenya are not listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), research shows they are threatened by climate change and deforestation.
The trees, which can live for 3,000 years, were uprooted in Kilifi to be replanted in a national park owned by a politician in Georgia.
Kenya and other parties in Montreal note that it is now possible to plunder the country’s resources without even moving a single physical sample.
For instance, scientists could decode the genetic makeup of baobab and use this digital data to reproduce its medicinal qualities without touching the tree.
Kenya and most developing countries are now pushing for regulations on such data, known as Digital Sequence Information (DSI), to ensure communities that have conserved nature for thousands of years can benefit from its use.
Such plunder has happened before.
In 1995, researchers from the German pharmaceutical giant Bayer decoded the structure of a bacteria strain from Lake Ruiru in Kenya and replicated it to make Glucobay, one of the best-selling diabetes drugs in the world.
There was neither prior informed consent from Kenya nor any benefits afforded to the country.
Kenya is one of the 197 parties that have ratified the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) treaty, which aims to address such problems and the threats to the survival of species and ecosystems around the world.
“Listen to the sounds of biodiversity and be aware of the silence that will echo from the disappearance of the one million soon-to-be extinct animal and plant species across the globe,” Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the CBD, told delegates at the opening ceremony on December 7.
Countries – known as parties – are hoping to agree on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (already two years delayed as a result of the pandemic) to halt the loss of species and ecosystems by 2030 and “live in harmony” with nature by 2050.
Until December 19, negotiators from around the world will debate the finer details of 22 Targets in the Framework. They include directives for countries to address the many causes of biodiversity loss, such as habitat destruction and the introduction of invasive species.
Kenya is represented at the meeting by a team from the Ministry of Environment. Cabinet Secretary Soipan Tuya is expected to attend next week.
The current working draft of the framework has three main objectives: The conservation of biological diversity; the sustainable use of the components of biological diversity; and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilisation of genetic resources.
Benefit sharing was included because conservation comes at a cost and those who have stewarded biodiversity should be compensated.
Accomplishing each of these targets will be crucial to ensuring that biodiversity loss is stopped by 2030 and reversed by 2050. The next two weeks are crucial-whether robust or watered down, the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework will determine the fate of the world’s biodiversity.
Cyrus Mageria is the head of the Multilateral Environmental Agreements directorate at the Ministry of Environment. The directorate is the custodian of the UN CBD and the three other environment-related treaties that Kenya has signed.
Mageria is leading the Kenyan team in their negotiations in Montreal. He spoke to The Star journalist John Muchangi in Montreal.
In your opinion does Kenya give equal this conference as the COP27? Do you feel climate issues are getting more attention?
Biodiversity issues are very important to Kenya and the issues we are discussing here are important to us. Biodiversity is part of our natural heritage and provides the foundation for our economy. It is the source of our food, provides traditional medicines and the raw material that many industries are using. It provides home to a number of species. I would rank this meeting higher than the climate change conference.
The biodiversity conference is more science-oriented and there is less geopolitics. It's at a higher level. In the climate change conference, there's a lot of lobbying. The structures of the two meetings are also very different.
In CBD, ministers are the highest level of representation, while for the climate change conference, the highest level is the head of state, which is why that meeting tends to be more highly elevated.
What targets is Kenya more particularly interested in?
We are party to the convention and we are keen on targets that touch on the conservation of our biological resources, sustainable use of resources and equity in access and benefit sharing. These are actually the key priorities of the entire proposed global biodiversity framework.
We are looking at minimising threats to biodiversity. In this COP, there are specific issues to do with protected areas, biodiversity and agriculture, and health and climate change, also embracing technology such as geospatial planning. We are also discussing issues of technology transfer including enhancing benefit sharing through bilateral systems. We are discussing the inclusivity of all the actors including indigenous and local communities, the private sector, women and girls in conservation.
Are there issues the country objects to?
Not per se. But there are some issues not in line with the principles of the framework or protocol. These are the areas we are really opposed to because we don’t want to be exposed. Specifically, issues on how you treat digital sequencing in benefit sharing and access, the mechanisms of sharing benefits incase some product developed from our genetic resources is commercialised. Gene sequencing, for instance, is advanced and our capacity in developing countries is lower, so if it is not to be subjected to those provisions, we will lose. If they do bioprospecting, we might lose without provisions that can be followed.
Digital sequence information (DSI) should be subjected to the provisions of the Nagoya protocol on access and benefit sharing.
What are the main threats to Kenya’s biodiversity, in your view?
Climate change is a major threat. Others are unsustainable consumption leading to heavy extraction. There is also growing land use changes, and conversion to other purposes without due consideration to biodiversity. For instance, there is infrastructure development without protection to biodiversity. There is also encroachment to forests, for instance, the Mau Forest encroachment. Another threat is pollution.
How do you train Kenyan negotiators for these talks?
Our government officials are normally trained on what should be discussed in form of agenda items and we deeply interrogate them using the science provided and see what the best options are for the country in the prevailing circumstances. We’re a sovereign state so we must ensure our interest supersedes others, but there is always compromise to ensure we move forward.
You also train them on what we’ll be looking for and what challenges to encounter and how to overtake those challenges. We equip them to present our case, defend it and convince others. We mostly utilise experts in various fields because biodiversity is cross cutting, so we get experts in various areas in Kenya.
What would a successful outcome of the talks look like to you?
We hope the meeting will adopt a new framework to protect biodiversity for the next eight or so years and we hope by 2050 we can live in harmony with nature. We also expect that as we adopt the framework, there will be effective implementation.
This story was produced as part of the 2022 CBD COP15 Fellowship organised by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network.
Image: John Muchangi