Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2020-12-14

National Policy on Access to Biological Material and Fair and Equitable Benefit Sharing

- Sri Lanka is considered to be the leading country in Asia in is bio-diversity and the country is also internationally recognized as a country which is abundant with fertile marshy lands / wet lands, coastal belts and marine bio – diversity. Despite the actions have been taken to conserve the bio – diversity and to prevent bio-theft and bio-piracy, it seems that such misappropriations continuous occur. It is also observed that, Sri Lanka would lose the benefits to be accrued to the country, if the specimens that are sent out of the country for taxonomic identification, would be used by the developed countries for making new products without having obtanied the consent of Sri Lanka. As a remedy for the problem, the proposal made by the Minister of Environment, pertaining to the “National Policy on Access to Biological Material and Fair and Equitable Benefit Sharing” which has been drafted with the participation of all stakeholders under the guidance of the Special Committee on the National Policy on Access to Biological Material and Fair and Equitable Benefit Sharing, functioning under the Ministry of Environment and its implementation mechanism by the State Institutions, was approved by the Cabinet.