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Earth Summit > Background
> Biosafety Protocol
The Biosafety Protocol (the Cartagena Protocol)
When the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
was agreed to in Rio in 1992, genetic engineering was in its infancy.
It soon became apparent, however, that an international
framework would be required to deal with this new technology, and
from 1996 to 1999, a working group of the CBD met to develop rules
around the transboundary movement of, "any living organism
resulting from modern biotechnology that may have adverse effect
on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity."
In February 1999, a Conference of the Parties to
the CBD met in Cartagena, Colombia, to finalise what would become
known as the Biosafety (or Cartagena) Protocol.
The delegates did not quite succeed in reaching
agreement, requiring a second meeting in January 2000, which was
held in Montreal. There, more than 130 countries agreed on the text
of the Biosafety Protocol, which will come into force when 50 countries
that are a part of the CBD formally ratify it.
For more information on this issue please
see the Greenpeace genetic
engineering website.
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