UN summit approves fund to share benefits of nature’s sequenced genetic data

The creation of the "Cali Fund" is one of the main (and few) advances of the COP16 on biodiversity, which ended in Cali, Colombia, on November 2. The mechanism aims to share the benefits generated from the use of digitally sequenced genetic information (abbreviated as DSI).

Bone of contention

Such data, much of it from species found in poor countries, is notably used in medicines and cosmetics that can make their developers billions. Few, if any, benefits of the data — often downloaded from free-access online databases — ever trickle down to the communities who discovered a species’ usefulness in the first place.

The issue had been a bone of contention at the 16th Conference of Parties (COP16) to the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that opened in the Colombian city of Cali nearly two weeks ago.

The previous summit, COP15 in Montreal, had agreed on the creation of a "multilateral mechanism" for sharing the benefits of digitally sequenced genetic information "including a global fund."

But in Cali, negotiators argued for nearly two weeks over basic questions such as who pays, how much, into which fund, and to whom the money should go. After a last-minute compromise, member countries of the CBD agreed on the creation of a "Cali Fund" for the equitable sharing of DSI benefits.

Voluntary contributions

The agreement determines that users who commercially benefit from DSI "should contribute a proportion of their profits or revenue to the global fund."

Those whose income exceeds a certain income threshold should contribute one percent of profits or 0.1 percent of revenue, the document determined.

Developing countries hope that the financial mechanism will raise billions of dollars to finance their commitments to protect nature. But the amount that will actually be collected, mainly through voluntary contributions, remains uncertain.

The non-binding agreement lists targeted sectors including the producers of pharmaceuticals, food and health supplements, cosmetics, biotechnology and agribusiness.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had urged delegates at the start of the talks to give the green light to a mechanism to govern DSI use so that benefits can be shared equitably. "Developing countries are being plundered," he said.

"Digitized DNA from biodiversity underpins scientific discoveries and economic growth. But developing countries don’t gain fairly from these advances -– despite being home to extraordinary richness," Guterres added.