Strengthening access and benefit-sharing (ABS) policies and institutional frameworks through demonstrable models in Saint Lucia

Component 1 will realize the outcome of a strengthened national policy and legislative institutional framework for operationalization of the Nagoya Protocol for access and benefit sharing (ABS).

Component 2 will realize an effective permitting and monitoring framework and strengthened capacities for ABS regulatory operationalization in accordance with provisions of the Nagoya Protocol. This will be supported by an interactive data support platform for use by Competent National Authorities (CNAs) and clients that is part of an existing data management system that will provide functional capacity to serve clearinghouse mechanism (CHM) requirements for the ABS framework.

Component 3 will contribute to commodity pilots to test operationalization of ABS protocols toward sustainable management of two indigenous genetic resources and scale-up for future commercial application. The two pilots will be based on (1) use of the venom of the endemic Saint Lucia Viper (Bothrops caribbaeus) for medical applications and (2) use of resinous extracts of the regionally endemic Lansan tree (Protium attenuatum) in the nutraceutical industry. This will be based on the formalization of ABS agreements with research and commercial entities that are developing value-added product applications from these biodiversity resources. Capacity enhancement and enterprise opportunities for local professional and local communities will be enhanced based on these cooperative ABS agreements with partners that will serve as demonstration models for replication.

Component 4 will enhance overall knowledge management to support decision making, stakeholder engagement and buy-in to recognition of the potential opportunities for sustainable management and use of native genetic resources, and the need to ensure that benefits accrued are repatriated to the country and communities. The project will take advantage of the opportunity to demonstrate options for green recovery and building back better in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic, particularly in the context of socio-economic opportunities in development of commodities derived from native biodiversity that are underpinned by safeguards afforded by ABS agreements with partners that have the means to scale to larger enterprise levels, and where the benefits can be equitably repatriated to local communities.