Biosafety Clearing-House - Latest News

Egypt - 1st National BCH Workshop

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:05:29 GMT

The Egyptian Environmental affairs Agency in collaboration with UNEP-GEF will organize the first national workshop on BCH entitled "Introduction to the CPB & BCH: Obligations & Operations" coordinated by Dr. Ossama Abdel-Kawy, Egypt BCH project coordinator.

The workshop will be held on 25 August 2008, at Sofitel, El Maadi, Cairo with participation from Prof. Moustafa Fouda, Head of Nature Conservation Sector & Egypt CBD National Focal Point and prof. Ossama El-Tayeb, Egypt CPB National Focal Point.

The workshop will focus on the CPB and the BCH as an information exchange mechanism established by the CPB to assist Parties to implement its provisions and to facilitate sharing of information on, and experience with, LMOs.

Representatives from national concerned authorities, universities and NGO's are invited to the workshop and expected to discuss for one day the position of Egypt BCH and its integration within Egypt governmental institutions and non governmental organizations.

For more information, write to Dr. Ossama Abdel-Kawy on elkawyo@gmail.com

Translation of the BCH into the 6 official UN languages and a new 'Help' section

Tue, 06 May 2008 12:32:42 GMT

In response to a direct request from the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol in Paragraph 13 of Decision BS-III/2 of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP-MOP). the Biosafety Clearing-House (BCH) is now accessible in all six of the official languages of the United Nations (i.e. Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish). The translation has been completed for all public pages of the BCH's Central Portal. The pages of the BCH Management Centre, only accessible to BCH account-holders to create and manage information, are also expected to be translated, following the revamping of this last section, by the end of 2008.

Thanks to the UNEP-GEF BCH Project team a new 'Help' section of the BCH is also available from the Central Portal to help facilitate the use of the BCH. It is noted that the product is an output of the effective collaboration of the Secretariat and the BCH project. This integrated new 'Help' section has also been fully translated into the six official languages of the United Nations.

All Parties, and other BCH users, are invited to provide the Secretariat with any feedback on these two important innovations.

Read the notification.

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya - National Validation Workshop for NBF of Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 07:32:34 GMT

The Environment General Authority (http://www.environment.org.ly) in collaboration with UNEP-GEF will organize the national validation workshop on Libyan National Biosafety Framework, which was formulated by a group of Libyan experts and coordinated by Abdulmaula HAMZA as a national project coordinator.
The workshop will be held on 23-24 April 2008, at the Libyan Marine Biology Research Centre in Tajoura (12 km E Tripoli) with participation from Dr Alex Osou-Biney the project coordinator in UNEP and Guest speaker Mdm Hazar Billy from NBF team of Tunisia.

Representatives from national concerned authorities, universities and NGO's are expected to discuss for two days the position of Libyan regulatory system in relation with LMO's and Cartagena Protocol implementation. Libya joined the protocol on June 12, 2005.
The workshop will include a visit to the premises of Libyan Biotechnology Research Centre, whom is a partner in preparation of the national framework; partners include also the National Bank for Plant Genetic Resources, The Libyan permanent committee on Bioethics and Biosecurity, the Libyan Society of Biotechnology.

For more information, write to Abdulmaula HAMZA on egabiosafety@gmail.com

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya - Libya participating to sub regional BCH workshop in Cairo

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:11:19 GMT

Organized by UNEP GEF project on Biosafety Clearing House Mechanism, The Environment General Authority was present at sub regional workshop on BCH, held in Marriott Hotel in Zamalek, Cairo, from 10-14 March 2008.

Launch of the 2007 Survey on the BCH

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:44:58 GMT

In accordance with requests made by both the COP-MOP and the BCH-IAC, a new online survey on the recently revamped BCH was released 1 December 2007. It is available at http://bch.cbd.int/survey/. The primary purpose of the survey is to obtain feedback from all BCH users, particularly with respect to user-friendliness and the quality of the information registered. The results of the survey will be collated and submitted for consideration by the Parties at their fourth meeting, being convened in Bonn 12-16 May 2008. This is being done as part of the review of the implementation of the Protocol envisaged in the medium-term programme of work.

November 2007 Release of the BCH

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:36:20 GMT

We are pleased to announce the release of a revamped version of the BCH. We have put together an entirely-new layout that is in sync with the website for the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Homepage of the BCH and the first three sections on the new horizontal navigation bar (i.e. 'The BCH', 'The Protocol' and 'Finding Information') have been fully overhauled. However, much work remains to be done on the other sections (i.e. 'Registering Information', 'Resources' and 'Help'). Below is a summary of the primary changes that have so far been made to the BCH:

URL:

The new URL of the Biosafety Clearing-House is http://bch.cbd.int/ and an automatic redirection is active from the previous URL.

User friendliness:

The BCH layout is now in sync with the new CBD website that was released in May 2007. Also, navigation tools similar to the new CBD website have been optimized in order to allow for better identification of the primary sections of the site.

All common content between the BCH and the CPB websites have been unified and consolidated so that the BCH and the CPB websites mirror one another in this respect. This was done in order to avoid duplication and facilitate browsing.

All of the primary search interfaces in the 'Finding Information' section - which represent the "core" of the BCH - have been merged as much as possible in order to facilitate access to cross-referenced data and maximize the capacity of BCH users to retrieve information from the Central Portal. For example, the new version of the BCH contains approximately 40 primary links and 10 search interfaces as opposed to the 85 primary links and 22 search interfaces contained in the previous version.

Optional advanced search functions have been integrated into each primary search interface in order to reduce search time without compromising ease of use.

Grouping options have been enhanced in all search interfaces in order to allow for queries of all major geographical or political groupings of countries.

Country profiles, containing summary information with links to all information registered by individual countries, are now available from all of the BCH pages in the new horizontal navigation bar.

Records of the unique identifiers of LMOs now contain a new feature whereby BCH users can access country decisions (categorized according to 'Domestic Use', 'Import', 'Environmental Release' and 'Other') and risk assessments that are directly related to specific LMOs.

Data Quality control:

A revised LMO registry, including all current OECD Unique Identifiers, has been consolidated in order to optimize the management of information available in the BCH. The registry is accessible at http://bch.cbd.int/database/organisms/uniqueidentifiers/.

Documentation available in the Biosafety Information Resource Centre (BIRC) has been divided into two databases. The first is for purely scientific articles published in international scientific journals and is maintained by the ICGEB (available at http://bch.cbd.int/database/bibliographic-references/). The second contains "grey" literature (e.g. reports and case studies; journals and newsletters; teaching materials, manuals, toolkits, presentations, etc., available at http://bch.cbd.int/database/resources/). Thanks to the kind contribution of the UNEP-GEF Biosafety Project, there has also been a significant increase of "grey" BIRC records (from 242 to over 700).

Multilanguage enhancement:

Added functionality to multiple languages support for Hermes, Ajax and Central Portal. National languages, other than the 6 UN Official languages may now be technically implemented in all BCH features pending the availability of text translations from interested countries.

March release of the Biosafety Clearing-House

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 15:21:51 GMT

We are pleased to announce the release of several new features to enhance the access to and use of the Biosafety Clearing-House (BCH).These improvements include the following:

Information resource pages providing additional details regarding each of the types of information reported in the BCH databases;

Simplification of the Management Centre, including making all editing and review features now available on a single page;

Expanded registration options for general users;

Development of additional tools to improve accessibility of information such as sample filled common formats for reporting information, expanded guidance in completing the forms, and updating of some fields in the formats;

Increased documentation for change to the BCH and its exchange mechanisms.

Further information about these new features and other improvements is available through this link.

Costa Rica - "Convenci�n Interinstitucional para el Desarrollo de Capacidad Nacional" sobre el Centro de Intercambio de Informaci�n sobre Seguridad de la Biotecnolog�a para Costa Rica

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 11:52:42 GMT

La Convenci�n interinstitucional para el desarrollo de capacidad nacional sobre el Centro de Intercambio de Informaci�n sobre Seguridad de la Biotecnolog�a para Costa Rica, es un talller de capacitaci�n dirigido a diferentes sectores p�blicos y privados que participan en el desarrollo del pa�s, como medios de comunicaci�n, industria biotecnol�gica, sociedad civil, organizaciones ambientalistas, Comisi�n T�cnica Nacional de Bioseguridad, sector acad�mico, pol�ticos e instituciones de gobierno. El taller informar� sobre los compromisos que Costa Rica ha adquirido con la ratificaci�n del Protocolo de Cartagena, facilitar� el intercambio de informaci�n y experiencia cient�fica, t�cnica ambiental y jur�dica en relaci�n con los organismos vivos modificados, en cumplimiento del Art�culo 20 del Protocolo de Cartagena sobre Seguridad de la Biotecnolog�a.

Final Report of the second meeting of the BCH-IAC now available

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:52:47 GMT

The Final Report of the second meeting of the Informal Advisory Committee of the Biosafety Clearing-House (BCH-IAC), held from 23 to 24 November 2006 in Geneva is now available on the CBD website.

December release of the Biosafety Clearing-House

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 16:09:59 GMT

We are pleased to announce the implementation of a number of new features in the Central Portal to facilitate and improve access to and use of the BCH. The main new additional features include the following:

A new background saving feature, which automatically saves every 5 minutes a temporary copy of a record being registered or updated in the Management Center. Should an interruption occur, the draft would be restored to its last saved state;

An improved publishing mechanism, which will allow users to actively publish several interlinked records at the same time;

An ability for users to link decision and risk assessment records to the BCH Living Modified Organism Registry maintained by the Secretariat in order to avoid any duplication. A warning message will display if one creates a new LMO record;

A safer un-publishing mechanism, which will ensure that cross-referenced records cannot be inadvertently deleted;

A more flexible way of displaying search results by allowing users to sort displayed results by different criteria;

Improved common formats for capacity-building project and opportunity records, which allow linkages between these records and the relevant organizations in the BCH Directory of Organizations involved in Biosafety Activities.

A redesigned news submission feature, which is now accessible through the Management Center of the BCH and allows National Focal Points and National Authorized Users to submit national news items to the BCH "What's New" page.

Summary of outcomes for the second meeting of the BCH-IAC (23-24 November 2006)

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 19:15:44 GMT

The second meeting of the BCH Informal Advisory Committee was held in Geneva from 23 to 24 November 2006. A summary of outcomes for this meeting is now available, pending publishing of the full report.

New features available - October BCH release

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 14:58:02 GMT

New features available in the October 2006 release of the BCH include:

A new section on information-sharing, which provides improved access to the Biosafety Information Resource Centre, the recently released directory of biosafety organizations, and a database of country profiles which provides at-a-glance summary information of information registered by each country in the BCH;

A new facility to search all types of decisions, declarations and notifications at once, and information about finding field trials not covered by the Advance Informed Agreement procedure;

Expanded help features, including new explanations and search hints, the ability to search all records registered with the BCH Central Portal as well as national websites that have been registered with the BCH, and access to the training modules developed under the UNEP-GEF capacity-building project on the BCH;

A new section on reporting, which provides improved access to annual reports on the operation of the BCH, annual reports on the operation of the Roster of Experts, and interim national reports under the Biosafety Protocol;

New search features and instructions for using the BCH multilingual thesaurus and controlled vocabulary; and

Updated common formats for reporting information to the BCH.

New Directory of Organisations involved in Biosafety Activities now available

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 16:55:32 GMT

The Secretariat has introduced an easily accessible organizations directory which includes a database that profiles the nature of work undertaken by each institution, focusing on its relevance to biosfaety, and provides detailed contact information as well as links to relevant records in the Biosafety Clearing-House.

The Directory is available on-line in the 'Information-sharing and networking mechanism' section of the BCH at <http://bch.biodiv.org/informationsharing/default.shtml>

New Living Modified Organism and Gene Insert Registries now available

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 16:09:26 GMT

The Secretariat has introduced an easily accessible central registry of all living modified organisms, including information on the transformation event, gene insert and characteristics of the modification, and its unique identification code (if available). Links to all decisions that refer to one of these organisms are provided at the bottom of each LMO record accessible through the registry.

Follow this link to view the registry of living modified organisms.

Follow this link to view the registry of gene inserts and characteristics.

Follow this link to search for a particular living modified organism.

Follow this link to learn more about unique identification codes.

Final Version of the Decisions of COP/MOP-3 and the Final Report of the meeting now available

Wed, 05 Jul 2006 10:41:48 GMT

The final version of the Decisions adopted at COP/MOP-3, held from 13 to 17 March 2006 in Curitiba, Brazil, and the Final Report of the meeting are now available on the CBD website.

Advance Version of the Decisions of COP/MOP-3 now available

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMT

An advance version (subject to final editing and clearance) of the Decisions adopted at COP/MOP-3, held from 13 to 17 March 2006 in Curitiba, Brazil, is now available on the CBD website.

Completion of COP/MOP-3 - BCH decision

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Decision BS-III/2 was adopted by the COP/MOP at its third meeting and related to information-sharing and the Biosafety Clearing-House. The edited version of the decisions will be made available shortly, but some highlights of the decision are below:

Urges Parties and other governments to contribute or continue to contribute information;

Invites users to share experiences on overcoming any constraints to making information available;

Requests provision of information relating to unique identification when registering decisions under the AIA procedure;

Reiterates the importance of capacity-building to enable Parties to access and use information the BCH through improving capacity for data collection and data management at the national level, strengthening the core human resources at the national level and enhancing infrastructure to share information at national, regional and international levels;

Invites donors (including the GEF) to take into account the need for Parties to be able to provide information in the common formats in an official language of the UN to enable registration with the Central Portal;

Provides funds for regular translation of the Central Portal through the core budget, beginning in 2007;

Requests the Secretariat to undertake an external security audit of the Central Portal and its infrastructure to ensure full security in 2008, subject to available financial resources;

Requests the Secretariat to continue to develop non-Internet based mechanisms to access and use the BCH on a demand-driven basis;

Requests the Secretariat to undertake a second survey of users to be considered during the review of BCH operations at COP/MOP-4.

Outcome of the BCH Training Workshop

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Delegates from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific Islands attended the BCH training workshop, which offered training to eligible Parties in how to access and use the BCH, how to fulfill legal obligations to provide information, and an opportunity to explore options for national participation in the global interconnected system that supports the BCH Central Portal.

Paper on the operation and activities of the Biosafety Clearing-House for MOP/3

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT

The pre-sessional paper on the operation and activities of the Biosafety Clearing-House for consideration of the third meeting of the Parties to the Protocol to be held in Curitiba from 13 to 17 March 2006, is now available through the CBD website.

New Biosafety Clearing-House Features

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT

The Biosafety Clearing-House website has been revised and enhanced, and the new version of the BCH website has been launched. Some of the new features include:

A new "virtual notebook" function that allows registered users to save records of interest for later reference (it operates in a similar fashion to a shopping cart on a commercial site);

Addition of a "country profile" section that will assist users in identifying what types of information are being reported by a particular government;

The ability to export search results and records in xml for use at a local level;

Search results that link the primary record of interest to related records that reference it; and

Addition of several news services to complement the existing Current Awareness Service, including the ability for national governments to register local biosafety news items for distribution through the BCH.

BCH Training Workshop

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT

The Secretariat, with support from the UNEP-GEF Project for Building Capacity for Effective Participation in the BCH as part of its national training activity, is convening a hands-on training workshop to review the use of the main components of the BCH in the context of the Protocol implementation, and to provide an opportunity for governments to register their information with the BCH. The workshop will be held on 11-12 March 2006, in Curitiba.

Interim National Reports under the Biosafety Protocol now available through the BCH

Wed, 04 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Access to the complete text of the interim reports submitted to the Secretariat in accordance is now available through the BCH. Electronic facilities intended to assist users to aggregate and analyse data according to selected Parties, geographic area, economic groups and other criteria are also available. Where possible, courtesy translations may have been made available for reports submitted prior to the deadline for submission.

2005 report on BCH activities

Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 GMT

The 2005 summary report on the operation of the Biosafety Clearing-House is now available. This includes information such as the number of and regional distribution of national focal points; the number of records available through the Biosafety Clearing-House; and partnership arrangements that have been entered into.

Provision of information to the BCH

Thu, 15 Dec 2005 00:00:00 GMT

The Secretariat sent a notification to all Parties reminding them of their reporting obligations, and requested Parties and Governments to review their records to ensure the information in the database has been accurately reported and categorized.

Capacity-Building Action Plan Questionnaire

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 10:38:53 GMT

The Secretariat has distributed a questionnaire to facilitate the submission of information on the progress in, and effectiveness of, the Action Plan for Building Capacities for the Effective Implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. The questionnaire can be downloaded in word format, or completed on-line. Please follow this link for details. Responses are due before 15 November 2005.

New controlled vocabulary for socioeconomic considerations

Mon, 19 Sep 2005 10:24:38 GMT

A new controlled vocabulary has been developed to allow countries to indicate their specific capacity-building priorities with regard to socioeconomic considerations, when registering national capacity-building needs. Please follow this link to see the new vocabulary, or log-on through the Management Centre to update your existing records.

Controlled Vocabulary in XML format

Fri, 16 Sep 2005 10:24:38 GMT

The BCH Thesaurus (i.e. the BCH controlled vocabulary, a pre-defined list of terms and related synonyms used in the BCH) can now be downloaded in XML format for use by developers. Please follow this link to view the thesaurus.

Expansion of regional search options

Thu, 08 Sep 2005 10:24:38 GMT

The regional search options have been expanded to allow additional regional searches, such as for Small Island Developing States, or European Union Members.

Search pages allow multiple selection in search categories

Thu, 01 Sep 2005 10:24:38 GMT

The search pages have been modified to allow users to select multiple options when searching the BCH databases. For multiple selections in the drop-down lists (e.g. country lists), please check the "multiple" heading above the search box and highlight the selections of interest by pressing the control key before clicking each term. For other lists (e.g. region lists), please select the appropriate options by using the check-boxes.

Expansion of the BCH Glossary

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 10:24:38 GMT

The BCH glossary has been revised and expanded to assist users to more easily access and use the information in the Biosafety Clearing-House. Please follow this link to visit the BCH Glossary.

Multiple contacts for Competent National Authorities

Wed, 17 Aug 2005 10:24:38 GMT

Multiple contact details may now be added when registering a Competent National Authority, allowing users to register information for more than one contact person within a single Authority. Please log in through the Management Centre and edit your existing records if you wish to create new titles for existing documents.

BCH-NFPs to be available for all governments

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 10:24:38 GMT

For those governments that have not yet nominated a national focal point for the BCH, national focal points for the Cartagena Protocol will also be deemed to be BCH National Focal Points in order to ensure that full access to the Biosafety Clearing-House is available to all governments. Please follow this link for the full text of the notification (PDF), or search the National Focal Point database for contact information relating to a particular government.

Option to include file titles for uploaded documents

Tue, 16 Aug 2005 10:24:38 GMT

Users can now create file titles or descriptions for uploaded documents attached to their records. Please log in through the Management Centre and edit your existing records if you wish to create new titles for existing documents.

Improvements to the keyword search functions

Fri, 15 Jul 2005 10:24:38 GMT

Keyword searches are now automatically parsed before being undertaken - unless otherwise specified, AND is added between terms. Parentheses can be used for complex searches, words can be grouped using quote marks and noise terms (such as "the" and "for") are filtered. For further information about searching options, please see the section on Boolean Searching examples in the BCH toolkit.

Reporting Format for the Interim National Report on Implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 15:12:59 GMT

The Reporting Format for the Interim National Report on Implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (Annex to MOP 1 Decision BS-I/9) is now available in all six official United Nations languages in the 'Downloadable Files' section of the BCH under 'BCH Forms'. All Parties are expected to submit the Interim National Report in this format to the Executive Secretary no later than 11 September 2005 in accordance with paragraph 5(i) of Decision BS-I/9.

Report of COP-MOP-2 now available

Tue, 05 Jul 2005 10:24:38 GMT

The report is now available for the second meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (document UNEP/CBD/BS/COP-MOP/2/15), held from 30 May to 3 June 2005 in Montreal. Please follow this link for the full text of the report (PDF).

BCH Multi-Year Programme of Work

Tue, 05 Jul 2005 10:24:38 GMT

COP-MOP 2 adopted a multi-year programme of work for the Biosafety Clearing-House which has five main strategic objectives, namely: 1) to improve ease of reporting and accessing information in the BCH; 2) to increase the amount of information that is currently being reported to the BCH and to ensure it is provided in a timely manner; 3) to make a broader range of biosafety information accessible to users of the BCH; 4) to enhance the capabilities of countries to access information through Internet-based BCH and to ensure that users without good Internet access are able to receive information made available through the BCH in a timely manner; and 5) to review the programme of work to ensure that is achieving the goals of the BCH effectively. The meeting also requested the Secretariat to continue to support capacity-building efforts to enable the active participation of countries in the BCH. Please follow this link to read the decision on operation and activities of the Biosafety Clearing-House (decision BS-II/2).

Risk assessment guidance documents now available in the Biosafety Information Resource Centre

Tue, 07 Jun 2005 10:24:38 GMT

Further to the COP-MOP 2 decision regarding risk assessment (decision BS-II/9), the risk assessment guidance documents listed in the annex of the review of existing guidance materials (UNEP/CBD/BS/COP-MOP/2/9) have been made available in the BCH. Please follow this link to search the Biosafety Information Resource Centre...

Launch of the academic compendium

Sun, 05 Jun 2005 10:24:38 GMT

The new academic compendium includes a listing of recurrent biosafety education and training programs offered by academic and other relevant institutions around the world. Each entry contains a brief description of the program as well as a Web link and contact details for further information. Please follow this link to search the compendium...

New version of BCH website launched

Fri, 06 May 2005 10:23:17 GMT

Following the transition of the BCH from the pilot phase to the fully operational phase and adoption of modalities for its operation (decision BS-I/3), the Secretariat has received valuable feedback from Governments and organizations regarding several proposed improvements to its operation. Accordingly, the Biosafety Clearing-House website has been revised and enhanced. New features include the launch of the Biosafety Information Resource Centre; improved management of records with information in multiple languages; easier access for users with limited email access; improved accessibility and usability; new features for BCH National Focal Points and group users; and personalized databases in the BCH training site.

Invitation to register information in the capacity-building databases

Wed, 06 Apr 2005 10:16:27 GMT

The Executive Secretary has extended an invitation to all National Focal Points and relevant organisations to register or update their information in the capacity-building databases prior to COP-MOP 2. Please follow this link for the full text of the notification (PDF).

Capacity-Building Network activated

Wed, 06 Apr 2005 00:00:00 GMT

The Biosafety Capacity-Building Network is an interactive forum that links individuals from Government agencies and relevant organizations active in biosafety capacity-building activities. The primary purpose of the Network is to facilitate communication, active interaction and the exchange of information among Network members with a view to promoting partnerships, complementarities and synergies between various biosafety capacity-building initiatives.

Paper on the operation and activities of the Biosafety Clearing-House for MOP-2

Tue, 15 Feb 2005 00:00:00 GMT

The pre-sessional paper on the operation and activities of the Biosafety Clearing-House for the second meeting of the Parties to the Protocol (UNEP/CBD/BS/COP-MOP/2/3), to be held in Montreal from 30 May to 3 June 2005, is now available through the CBD website.

2004 report on BCH activities

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 00:00:00 GMT

The 2004 summary report on the operation of the Biosafety Clearing-House is now available. This includes information such as the number of and regional distribution of national focal points; the number of records available through the Biosafety Clearing-House; and partnership arrangements that have been entered into.

2004 report on the biosafety roster of experts

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 00:00:00 GMT

The 2004 summary report on the status and use of the roster of experts on biosafety, and the voluntary fund for the roster of experts on biosafety, is now available. This report includes statistics on the regional, gender and sector composition of the roster.

Summary outcomes from the first meeting of the BCH Informal Advisory Committee

Wed, 01 Dec 2004 00:00:00 GMT

The first meeting of the informal advisory committee of technical experts on the Biosafety Clearing-House met in Montreal on 9 to 10 November 2004, and the summary outcomes report of this meeting is now available.

Archived conference proceedings (GMOs in the management of animal populations)

Mon, 22 Nov 2004 00:00:00 GMT

The archived conference proceedings for the online conference on "GMOs in the management of animal populations", which ran from 18 October to 15 November 2004, are now available. Some of the topics raised for discussion by participants during the online conference included: the appropriate timing of international consultation regarding disseminating LMOs, and incorporating frameworks for such consultation in decision-making (e.g., case-by-case workshops); mechanisms to limit or track disseminating LMOs spreading across international boundaries, such as safety mechanisms for making disseminating LMOs safer (e.g., building containment into recombinant bacteria, and current developments with genetically modified viruses); balancing the risks of using LMOs to control animal populations against the known damage to ecosystems associated with currently available control measures (e.g., cases where current measures fail to mitigate damage done by invasive alien species); and particular challenges in developing countries for managing risks, such as implications of poor understanding and education about LMOs.

Composition of the Informal Advisory Committee of the BCH and first meeting

Thu, 21 Oct 2004 00:00:00 GMT

At its first meeting, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol adopted the modalities of operation of the Biosafety Clearing-House, which inter alia, mandated the Secretariat to seek assistance from an informal advisory committee, with a particular focus on providing guidance with respect to resolution of technical issues associated with the ongoing development of the Biosafety Clearing-House. Pursuant to this decision, the Secretariat has scheduled the first meeting of the informal advisory committee of technical experts on the Biosafety Clearing-House in Montreal on 9 to 10 November 2004. The composition of the meeting was determined by the Secretariat taking into account the participants' demonstrated expertise and experience with the Biosafety Clearing-House, while ensuring regional and gender balance on the Committee, and is available in the relevant notification on the CBD website.

Online Conference - GMOs in the Management of Animal Populations

Wed, 22 Sep 2004 14:51:13 GMT

Modern biotechnology can provide innovative approaches to management of animal populations, but what about potential risks? This online conference will facilitate exchange of views on a range of important issues such as the use of GM microorganisms, nematodes and insects for biological control (including those used to cause sterility in pest species for conservation and/or commercial purposes); the use of GM viruses to protect mammal populations against disease; and the use of GM insects for reducing disease transmission rates. The conference will be hosted on the Biosafety Clearing-House from 18 October to 15 November 2004. To subscribe, visit http://bch.biodiv.org/onlineconferences/gmoam.shtml or send an email to bchlistserv@biodiv.org with the subject line blank and the message "SUBSCRIBE GMOAM FirstName LastName" in the message body.

BCH Survey

Mon, 16 Aug 2004 00:00:00 GMT

The Secretariat is in the process of preparing a longer-term programme of work for the operation of the BCH. We would like to seek your views to assist us in this task and invite you to participate in our survey. We would like all BCH users, or potential BCH users, to assist us in providing information through the questionnaire, so please feel free to distribute it widely among your colleagues. The questionnaire is available in hard-copy or electronically from the Secretariat, or via the BCH website, where it can be downloaded as a PDF or MS Word document, or completed on-line. [please note that the survey closed on 17 September 2004]

BCH News Function

Thu, 05 Aug 2004 10:05:21 GMT

Registered National Focal Points of the BCH may now submit their own national (or regional) biosafety news to be featured on the BCH. This new feature will allow governments to ensure that their information is circulated widely to all users of the BCH. Use the "Add News Item" button on the BCH news page after logging in via the Management Centre.

BCH Current Awareness Mailing List

Tue, 20 Jul 2004 00:00:00 GMT

The BCH Current Awareness Mailing List is now in operation. This service sends out regular updates summarizing new information that has been added to the BCH, sent directly to users by email (or to a specified fax number). The categories of information to be included in the summaries, and the frequency of their delivery are individually customizable for each user. Please see the mailing list page for further information.

BCH webpage translations available

Tue, 18 May 2004 12:16:01 GMT

Translation of the webpages and search functions of the Biosafety Clearing-House has been updated, and information is now available in all United Nations official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish and Russian. Languages are available by clicking on the language buttons at right-hand side of the red bar underneath the CBD logo (or left-hand side for Arabic).

Because of the dynamic nature of the BCH, the pages need to be regularly updated. Updates are undertaken quarterly, depending on the availability of funds.

Launch of the fully operational phase of the BCH

Fri, 02 Apr 2004 17:00:02 GMT

Following the approval of the transition of the Pilot Phase of the BCH to the fully operational phase, the website has been revised and enhanced. New developments include:

Improved search facilities (such as a living modified organism "quick search" that can retrieve information using the common name of an organism, the unique identification, and/or the modified trait).

A search engine that indexes the thousands of pages of biosafety websites and allows users to carry out a keyword search across them.

Redesigned presentation of content and improved help facilities to assist users in finding information (such as national contacts, laws and regulations, decision information, capacity-building activities, biosafety experts, and other resources), including "quick help" and glossary links through the site.

Dynamic links to Biosafety Clearing-House news, the list of Parties to the Protocol, and new information on the Biosafety Protocol website.

Facilities to make links between decision information and risk assessment summaries when registering them with the BCH.

An about this site section providing background information about the BCH, including the modalities of operation of the BCH as adopted by COP/MOP-1.

Improved procedures to sign up for a BCH account.

Expanded facility to register the responsibilities of Competent National Authorities to include the type of living modified organism.

The Secretariat welcomes your feedback. Please email us at bch@biodiv.org.

The Operational Phase of the BCH adopted at COP-MOP1

Tue, 09 Mar 2004 15:04:25 GMT

At its first meeting, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol approved the transition of the Pilot Phase of the Biosafety Clearing-House to the operational phase, and adopted the modalities of operation of the Biosafety Clearing-House in accordance with the Article 20 of the Protocol. The BCH Central Portal will be updated in the next few weeks to reflect these changes.

Downloading the simple national biosafety clearing-house application (nBCH)

Fri, 13 Feb 2004 22:14:43 GMT

A Simple National Biosafety Clearing-House Application (nBCH) has been developed by the Secretariat and can now be downloaded through the BCH. The nBCH is a software tool designed to achieve the following goals:

Off-line BCH data entry
Many BCH users may not have a permanent or reliable Internet connection. The nBCH allows a user to enter national information locally even if Internet access is not available.
Data transfer to the Central Portal of the BCH
Once national information has been entered into the nBCH, the data can be transferred to the Central Portal of the BCH, either via Internet interoperability or via export options.
Reference tool for systems developers
Countries interested in setting up their National BCH node may find it useful to see how a simple stand-alone application can communicate with the Central Portal of the BCH. Systems developers have full access to the source code and are welcome to build their own application based on the interoperability logic used by the nBCH.

Updating user profiles

Fri, 13 Feb 2004 21:55:35 GMT

BCH account holders can now edit their personal information in the "my profile" category that appears in the left-hand menu of the Management Centre after they have logged in. This facility enables users to specify, among other things, their preferred language and time zone, as well as managing other features such as enabling client certificate authentication.

BCH Forums now online

Tue, 16 Dec 2003 11:59:18 GMT

The Biosafety Clearing-House discussion forums are a new tool the Secretariat is now offering in the effort to facilitate sharing of views and expertise on issues of relevance to the Biosafety Protocol, and in particular to assist people in the use of the BCH.

Registration and participation in the forums is freely available to all users, including governmental and non-governmental organisations, policy makers and the general public, although some topics are more relevant for specific categories of users, such as BCH National Focal Points. The discussions are broadly divided into General and Technical. The topics available at the moment are: Getting Started, User Support, Feature Requests, Capacity-Building, Interoperability and the Simple National BCH.

The forums are completely newsgroup-based and all users are requested to keep their posts strictly relevant to the topic at hand. The Secretariat moderates every list to ensure that spam and off-topic messages are not included in the posts. This may mean that there is a short delay (up to 24 hours) before your message shows up on the forum if it is your first post, and we apologize for any inconvenience. Please contact the Secretariat if you experience any difficulties in using the forums.

Capacity-building users groups now available

Mon, 17 Nov 2003 00:00:00 GMT

In response to several requests by organizations involved in capacity-building acitivities, it is now possible for users belonging to the same organization to share the ownership of their records. Capacity-building organizations are invited to contact the Secretariat in order to create a "group" of users for their organization, each of whom will be able to edit, validate or delete the organization's records (rather than just the owner of the record, which was previously the case).

Competent National Authorities - summaries available in downloadable pdfs

Fri, 07 Nov 2003 00:00:00 GMT

The list of designated Competent National Authorities has been added to the available downloadable documents. The list features the names of Competent National Authorities, their regulatory function and contact details. Together with lists of national focal points, points of contact for emergency measures and the report of the roster of experts, this list is updated daily.

BCH-NFPs have greater control over authorized users

Fri, 31 Oct 2003 00:00:00 GMT

The administration section of the BCH Management Center has been revised to include more precisely defined and configurable users' roles. The most important change is in the division of responsibility of authorized users: BCH National Focal Points can now create authorised users with responsibility for all national records, or limit their access to one or more categories: focal points' contact details, laws and regulations, and/or decisions.

A new category of users called Registered Users is reserved for people or organizations registering records not linked to a country, i.e. bibliographic information and relevant websites.

Expansion of the BCH Thesaurus

Wed, 15 Oct 2003 00:00:00 GMT

The CBD Secretariat has been working on expanding the BCH Thesaurus, to include more terms and more detailed definitions where possible. The translation of all terms to the six UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) continues and a new field has been added to describe the source of the translation of each term. Whenever the information is available, the translation is sourced from official multilingual thesauri, such as FAO's AGROVOC, UNEP's ENVOC and the authentic text of the Biosafety Protocol deposited with the Secretary-General of the UN.

Guidelines for National Participation in the Biosafety Clearing-House

Thu, 25 Sep 2003 00:00:00 GMT

The Guidelines for National Participation in the Biosafety Clearing-House, prepared by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, have been sent today to all Cartagena Protocol Focal Points for the Parties to the Protocol and other Governments. The goal of the Guidelines is to inform Parties to the Cartagena Protocol about their obligations regarding the provision of required information to the BCH under Article 20 of the Protocol. The Guidelines have also been sent to the BCH National Focal Points, for their information.

Entry into force of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety

Thu, 11 Sep 2003 00:00:00 GMT

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety enters into force today. On 13 June this year, the Republic of Palau became the 50th State to ratify the Protocol, which triggered the countdown to the entry into force. To date, 57 States and the European Community have ratified it. Check the daily updated list on the CBD website. For information on the requirements that need to be fulfilled as at the date of entry into force of the Protocol, please refer to the notification sent to governments on 5 September 2003, available on the CBD Web site at: Notification 2003-93

Word form for registering national needs and priorities

Thu, 10 Jul 2003 00:00:00 GMT

In order to assist developing countries and countries with economies in transition to assess their capacity-building needs and priorities for effective implementation of the Biosafety Protocol, the CBD Secretariat has created a common form, in Word, for registering information on capacity-building needs and priorities. The form was created for those countries which could not access it in electronic format in the BCH. It is based on elements identified in the capacity-building Action Plan. Developing countries and countries with economies in transition were requested to assess their needs and submit the form by 30 June 2003 (see Notification 2003-045).

So far 36 countries have responded to the request and the records specifying their capacity-building needs are now available in the BCH.

50th ratification of the Biosafety Protocol

Fri, 13 Jun 2003 00:00:00 GMT

Ratification today by Palau triggers the countdown to the entry into force of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, the first legally binding international agreement governing the movement of living modified organisms across national borders. It will take effect on 11 September 2003, ninety days from today.

At the date of entry into force, member countries of the Protocol will be required to use the Biosafety Clearing-House (BCH) to fulfill a number of specific obligations, among others to make available the name and contact details of one or more competent national authorities and one national focal point (Article 19), as well as the name and contact details of the contact point for notifications on unintentional transboundary movements and emergency measures (Article 17). For more details please see Notification issued on 16 June 2003.

Request to submit national capacity-building needs and priorities

Mon, 26 May 2003 00:00:00 GMT

Developing countries and countries with economies in transition are requested to assess and submit to the Secretariat or to the BCH information on their capacity-building needs and priorities for effective implementation of the Biosafety Protocol. The Notification explaining different procedures for submitting identified national biosafety capacity-building needs and priorities can be accessed at the CBD website. The deadline for submitting this information is Friday, 30 June 2003.

BCH Tool-kit available for download

Thu, 01 May 2003 00:00:00 GMT

BCH Toolkit - five tutorial modules created to help use and understand the BCH website are now available for download in all six UN languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

Recommendations of the Liaison Group of Technical Experts Meeting (10-11 April 2003)

Tue, 15 Apr 2003 00:00:00 GMT

The Liaison Group of Technical Experts on the Biosafety Clearing-House met in Montreal from 10 to 11 April 2003. Twenty technical experts attended the meeting. The meeting was convened to provide advice to the Executive Secretary on the requirements for establishment of national components for participation in the Biosafety Clearing-House, and associated technical issues. Three main items were discussed: Status of implementation of the Biosafety Clearing-House; National experiences in using the pilot phase of the Biosafety Clearing-House; and Requirements for the establishment of national components for participation in the Biosafety Clearing-House, and associated technical issues.

A summary of the comments and main recommendations made by the Group are available here.

Expansion of BCH Glossary

Mon, 03 Mar 2003 00:00:00 GMT

The BCH Glossary has been expanded and updated to assist users to more easily access and use the information in the Biosafety Clearing-House.

UNEP-GEF BCH Questionnaire

Wed, 19 Feb 2003 00:00:00 GMT

The UNEP-GEF Biosafety Questionnaire on the BCH has been sent to the biosafety focal points, National Executing Agencies (NEAs) and National Project Coordinators (NPCs) of the UNEP-GEF Development and Implementation Projects. The deadline for responses is 28 February 2003.

Version 2.0 of the BCH Pilot Phase launched!

Sat, 01 Feb 2003 00:00:00 GMT

Welcome to version 2.0 of the pilot phase of the Biosafety Clearing-House. This version of the website incorporates recommendations made by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (ICCP) at its third meeting, as well as feedback received so far from Governments and organizations that have participated in the development of the pilot phase.

New developments include:

Improved searching facilities and faster download times for the website.

Expansion of the capacity-building project and initiatives databases to include information on other available capacity-building opportunities, such as funding and training opportunities, as well as a facility for countries needing support to register their capacity-building needs and priorities.

Further development of the tool kit and other help functions of the BCH to include more in-depth training materials, targeted for different audiences.

Improvements to the BCH Management Centre, the web-based mechanism by which Governments and capacity-building organizations can register information.

Inclusion of a registry for unique identification of LMOs (which will be linked to the system being developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).

Access to (and interoperability with) more external databases, including the bibliographic database of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.

Documents, such as common formats for reporting information, provided in multiple formats (e.g. HTML, Word documents, PDF files).

The Secretariat welcomes your feedback. Please email us at bch@biodiv.org.