Biosafety Clearing-House-

Unitenstional transboundary
movement of LMOs
 What is the role of the BCH?

Under Art 20, the CPB established the BCH. The

Protocol sets out two functions for the BCH:
To facilitate the exchange of scientific, technical,
environmental and legal information on, and
experience with, LMOs; and
To assist Parties to implement the Protocol.
 How Parties and non-Parties can benefit from the BCH?

While all Parties have obligations under the Protocol to make information
available through the BCH, they also have benefits from using the BCH. For
example, they can:

access information about the national laws, regulations and guidelines of other
Parties; and information about the decisions and assessments of other
countries relating to specific LMOs;

ensure, by posting up-to-date information on the BCH, that all potential

exporters of LMOs to their country, or those who wish to transport LMOs across
their territory, are aware of their national regulatory requirements;

access information about capacity-building and other assistance available to

support implementation of the Protocol; and

ensure that the relevant authorities in other countries can quickly find out who
to inform in the event of an accidental movement of LMOs into their territory.

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 What are the Types of Information Parties Need to make
available?

Some information should be available on the BCH as

soon as the Protocol enters into effect for a country (i.e.
as soon as it becomes a Party to the Protocol), e.g

The Party should inform the Secretariat of its

competent national authority (or authorities). This
information will then be placed on the BCH;
Information on the competent national authority(ies)
of many countries is already available on the BCH;

The Party should make available through the BCH

information on existing laws, regulations or guidelines
relevant to LMOs.
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 What are the Types of Information Parties Need to make
available? (cont)

Some information must be made available to the BCH

when a country take certain steps, e.g.
If a Party enters into a bilateral, regional or
multilateral agreement or arrangement regarding the
transboundary movement of LMOs; or
If the Party adopts or amends laws, regulations or
guidelines relevant to LMOs.

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 What are the Types of Information Parties Need to make
available? (cont)

Some information must be made available on the BCH

when a country takes certain decisions, e.g.
If a Party takes a final decision on the importation or
release of LMOs (e.g. under the AIA procedure); or
If the Party takes a final decision regarding domestic
use, including placing on the market, of an LMO that
may be subject to transboundary movement for direct
use and food or feed, or for processing.

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 What are the Types of Information Parties Need to make
available? (cont)

Some information must only be made available only if

certain events occur, e.g.
Information concerning cases of illegal transboundary
movement of LMOs; or
Notification of an occurrence under the Partys
jurisdiction resulting in a release that leads to, or may
lead to, an unintentional transboundary movement of an
LMO.

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 What is the functioning of the BCH?

In order to fully participate in the BCH, Governments need

to put in place lines of communication and information
exchange to ensure that information that should be made
available through the BCH is placed on the BCH;
To assist Parties in doing so, the governing body has
established some basic principles for the operation of the
BCH.

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 What is the functioning of the BCH? (cont)
BCH Focal Point

Parties must nominate National focal point for the BCH (or
institutional focal points), who will:
Clear, for publishing, information registered on the BCH,
including validation at a national level of records to make
them publicly available through the central portal of the
BCH;
Liaison with the Secretariat regarding the technical aspects
of national participation in the BCH;
Liaison with the Secretariat regarding issues of relevance to
the development and implementation of the BCH.

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 Who can access the BCH?

Information in the BCH is open and accessible to all

users;
Since the information on the BCH is meant to be
accessible to all, confidential information should NOT be
posted on the BCH.

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 Who can put information on the BCH?

Information that must go onto the BCH might originate in

different governments departments and agencies;
Therefore, only information that is validated by the BCH
focal point, is posted on the BCH;
Depending on the option for national participation
chosen by a country, validation from the BCH FP may
occur in several different ways.

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 Language Requirements for the BCH

The governing body of the Protocol has decided that all

information should be submitted to the BCH in an official
language of the United Nations (Arabic, Chinese, English,
French, Russian or Spanish)
The MOP encourages Parties and other governments to
provide courtesy translations of information in the BCH
into one or more languages that are commonly used
internationally.

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 What information can be found on the BCH?

There are several broad categories of information

that are required by the BCH:
Laws and Regulations;
National Contacts;
Decisions and Declarations on LMOs;
Risk Assessments;
Unique Identification;
Capacity Building;
Roster of Experts;
National Reports submitted by Parties.

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 Decisions and Declarations on LMOs

Decisions by a Party on regulating the transit of specific

LMOs (Article 6(1));
Final decisions regarding the importation or release of
LMOs (e.g. approval or prohibition; any conditions
attached to approvals; requests for further information;
extensions granted; reasons for decision) (Article 10(3));

Information on the application of domestic regulations to

specific imports of LMOs (Article 14(4));

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 Decisions and Declarations on LMOs (cont)

Final decisions regarding the domestic use of LMOs that

may be subject to transboundary movement for direct use
as food or feed, or for processing (Article 11(1));

Final decisions regarding the import of LMOs intended for

direct use as food or feed, or for processing that are taken
under domestic regulatory frameworks (Article 11);

Declarations regarding the framework to be used for

LMOs intended for direct use as food or feed, or for
processing (Article 11(6)) ));

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 Risk Assessments

Summaries of risk assessments or environmental reviews

of LMOs generated by regulatory processes and relevant
information regarding products thereof, namely,
processed materials that are of living modified organism
origin, containing detectable novel combinations of
replicable genetic material obtained through the use of
modern biotechnology (Article 20(3)(c)).

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 Unique Identification

The BCH contains a database providing a registry of

unique identification classifications as a key to access
records in the BCH, such as the OECDs unique identifiers
for transgenic plant lines for LMOs-FFP.

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 Capacity Building

Through the BCH, Parties and others can access important

information about capacity-building and other assistance
for implementation of the Cartagena Protocol;
For example, the BCH contains databases of capacity-
building opportunities and projects and initiatives;
Governments can also register their capacity-building
needs and priorities;
Eventually, a database on capacity-building outcomes and
lessons learned will also be added.

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 National reports submitted by Parties

The Protocol requires each Party to submit a periodic

report on its implementation of the Protocol to the
Protocols governing body;
These reports will be made available on the BCH.

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