Address by Andean Community Secretary General, Guillermo Fernández de Soto, at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with Conservation International
Washington, D.C., June 11, 2003

I would first like to extend a very special welcome to the Ministers, Andean Ambassadors, and representatives of multilateral organizations and international conservation NGOs who are present here today.  

We are gathered together this morning for a reason of the greatest importance to both the Andean Community Member Countries and the international community.  The signing of this Memorandum of Understanding between the Andean Community General Secretariat and a prominent worldwide conservation organization, International Conservation, is a recognition that biodiversity –that wealth of species, ecosystems and ecological processes that make the world a living planet— is an essential and strategic resource for the attainment of sustainable development, eradication of poverty and intensification of Andean integration.  It is also a recognition that conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity are not the responsibility of governments alone, but are an undertaking where non-governmental organizations, the private sector, local communities and each of us has a role to play in transforming certain development models and, more specifically, some unsustainable patterns of production and consumption.

As I have already stated to some of you, the Andean Community is in the process of defining the type of international position our countries should assume in the new economic and political architecture that is beginning to be designed.  We are redirecting subregional integration based on our accumulated strengths toward a second generation of policies within the framework of a multidimensional agenda. Approved by the Andean Foreign Ministers in March of this year, this new agenda considers sustainable development –and hence, the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity— as one of the strategic lines of action.

The five Andean Community Member Countries --Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela— have the privilege of sharing the region with the largest number and variety of animal and plant species in the world.  Considered by experts the "Global Epicenter of Biodiversity," the subregion is the world’s foremost producer of native and varied vascular plants, birds, amphibians and insects.  It is also the origin of important phytogenetic resources that supply roughly 35% of the earth’s agricultural food crops and agroindustrial products.  The immense natural wealth these countries possess represents 25% of the planet’s biological diversity.  

The world market for biological resources today totals over 900 billion dollars and is still growing. The major biotechnological advances have multiplied the uses of these resources for food products, industrial goods and medicines.  The ecological resources of the tropical Andean countries have without any doubt whatsoever placed our countries in a privileged position for ensuring that those resources are used properly.   

The imminent danger of the loss of this natural heritage, however, is a worldwide problem that calls for coordinated regional and international measures to be taken.  At the same time, the access to genetic resources, protection of traditional know-how and practices, and fair and equitable distribution of the benefits of the use of biodiversity are issues that have taken on enormous importance over the past decade, given the dizzying advance of biotechnology and growing patent applications.   

Since the signing of the Biological Diversity Convention on June 5, 1992, the signatory countries have concentrated their political, juridical and technical discussions primarily on the issue of access to genetic resources.  This applies to the Member Countries of the Andean Community, as well.  Together with the Philippines, they offer the most telling examples of efforts to implement national and regional systems of access to genetic resources, respectively.  Andean Community Decision 391 and Executive Order 247 of the Philippines were the first legal instruments of international law to regulate access to genetic resources within the framework of the stipulations of the Biological Diversity Convention.   

In compliance with an express mandate handed down by its Heads of State, the Andean Community, with the support of the IDB, drew up the "Regional Biodiversity Strategy for the Tropical Andean Countries," which was approved by the Foreign Ministers through Decision 523 in July 2002. This Strategy, born of the Biological Diversity Convention, constitutes an important subregional effort to develop a comprehensive platform for Community action by promoting cooperation among the Member Countries and projecting them, endowed with a new identity, toward the rest of the international community.   

It is with the aim of carrying out the actions provided for by that Strategy and of creating a platform with which to promote international cooperation that we have established this strategic alliance with "Conservation International."  This non-profit organization is recognized internationally due to its efforts to conserve the world’s biodiversity.  Operating in each of the Andean Community Member Countries, it recently set up the Center for the Conservation of Andean Biodiversity and the Center for Conservation and Government.    

We are deeply pleased at this strategic alliance being sealed today with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding.  Its main purpose is to promote and facilitate the implementation of the Regional Biodiversity Strategy for the Tropical Andean Countries by means of the following specific actions:

- The development of common strategies and initiatives identified in the Regional Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan,

- The creation of a Financing Fund to support the implementation of this Action Plan, and

- The identification of strategic allies at the national, regional and international levels.  

This alliance marks the beginning of a new relationship between governments and civil society, which understands that the establishment of synergies is essential if successful projects and initiatives for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity are to be carried out in the Andean subregion.  At this point, I would like to invite new strategic allies –some of which are present today— to join with us in making the Regional Biodiversity Strategy a reality.   

Its implementation will undoubtedly be a complex, interactive and long-term undertaking.  The success of the proposal will depend upon the ability of different social sectors to make the Strategy their own, the dovetailing of different interests in common agendas and a sound, transparent and pragmatic execution that will make it possible to achieve concrete results for the inhabitants of the Andean Subregion.    

The Strategy’s full execution, in coordination with allies like CI, will help to improve the quality of life of the Andean peoples and make them not only the suppliers of environmental goods and services to the rest of the World, but also prudent administrators of a valuable natural heritage that we have the obligation to use in a sustainable way.