On March 10th, the seven suggestions on the formulation of Biosafety Law put forward by Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, Co-Director of Center of the Ecological Civilization at the Institute of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era of Peking University, are submitted to the Legal Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress. The seven recommendations are as follows:
1. The regulation of the National Biological Security Law should be under the guidance of President Xi's Ecological Civilization and pinpoint the biodiversity conservation as the basic task to maintain national biodiversity security.
2. The security of pollinators should be included in the Law. I noticed that the conservation and sustainability of pollinator as an emerging issue has obtained wide attention, which was presented as one of the thirty issues together with invasive species and synthetic biology at the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP14). The Law is suggested to take these emerging topics into consideration. The sharp decrease of pollinators, such as bees, birds, and bats, will lead to the slump of grain production, further impacting the ecosystem human beings live by and food security. 80% of bloomers globally require animals to pollinate, and the majority of pollinators are insects which are in decrease due to the overconsumption of pesticides and chemicals.
3. The forward-seeing issues such as digital sequence on genetic resources shall be addressed. I have participated in the meetings of CBD COP in 2016 and 2018, and the Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources was come up at the twentieth meeting of the intergovernmental scientific advisory body of the CBD， Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA). Genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of their use have been a vital mechanism to resolve the conflicts on the benefits of genetic resources between developing and developed countries. I have been keeping close attention to this issue over the past four years. In the information era, the importance of Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources has been demonstrated, therefore it is advised to be reflected in the Law.
4. To evaluate the influence on biological security brought out by the climate crisis, including the release of ancient viruses as a result of possible glacial ablation under the climate change which may incur unprecedented epidemic disease to human beings, and other potential biological crises. Given that the draft has not been published yet and only the framework is available. The risk triggered by climate change is not to be considered in the eight categories of the framework.
5. To attach importance to agrobiodiversity conservation, including the protection of traditional livestock breeds, and incorporate the resources into the Law as national strategic resources. China is losing agricultural genetic resources, and the unique agricultural varieties that have been successfully domesticated for thousands of years are disappearing rapidly. The industry which advocates monoculture is vulnerable to the major epidemic that comes, the attack is industry-wide. The African swine fever, for instance, has brought server economic loss as the low infection breeds have not been farmed. Much other traditional livestock is faced with a similar challenge. The mode of production developed in the industrial civilization which boosts economic benefits pursues high efficiency. Therefore, breeds or varieties with high production have been preferable and popular in the market as time goes by. On the contrary, few would pay attention to species and breeds with low production even they go into extinction. We should conserve our traditional varieties under the philosophy of ecological civilization. This is a core part of biosafety legislation.
6. To value the role of artificial intelligence in the field of biological security, give full play to the role of think tanks and social organizations, strengthen the strategic researches and information disclosure pertaining to biological security, and have a say in biological security in the international community. It is recommended to encourage the multi-body participation mechanism in the regulation for an open governance layout of biological security.
It is necessary to consider the connection with important international conventions and agreements (whether acceded or not), including but not limited to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the CBD, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture of FAO, the CITES and the CMS.
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/11663.html
By / Wang Yanqing