Notification 2011-182

Dear Madam/Sir, At the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP-MOP), the Parties welcomed the collaborative efforts of the Open-ended Online Expert Forum and an Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) on Risk Assessment and Risk Management that resulted in the “Guidance on Risk Assessment of Living Modified Organisms” (hereinafter “the Guidance”) (Additional information on the development of the “Guidance on Risk Assessment of Living Modified Organisms” may be found in document UNEP/CBD/BS/COP-MOP/5/12.). Further, the Parties noted that the Guidance is a document in evolution with an objective to provide a reference that may assist Parties and other Governments in implementing the provisions of the Protocol with regards to risk assessment, in particular its Annex III and, as such, the Guidance is not prescriptive and does not impose any obligations upon the Parties. The Parties also noted that the first version of the Guidance required further scientific review and testing to establish its overall utility and applicability to living modified organisms (LMOs) of different taxa introduced into various environments. Between 4 February and 15 March 2011, a scientific review was carried out by Parties, other Governments and relevant organizations. A total of 33 submissions were received, of which 18 were from Parties, three from other Governments and 12 from organizations. All submissions received through the scientific review are available in the Biosafety Clearing-House (BCH) (Available at http://bch.cbd.int/onlineconferences/guidance_ra/review.shtml .). The scientific review was followed by two rounds of online discussions under the Open-ended Online Expert Forum (Online discussions on the revision of the Guidance took place under the Open-ended Online Forum between 28 March and 18 April 2011 and between 18 July to 6 August 2011. The comments are available at http://bch.cbd.int/onlineconferences/discussiongroups_ra.shtml .) and a face-to-face meeting of the AHTEG (The third meeting of the AHTEG was held in Mexico City, Mexico from 30 May to 3 June 2011. The report of the meeting is available at http://bch.cbd.int/protocol/meetings/documents.shtml?eventid=4736 .) to revise and improve the Guidance. As a result of the above deliberations, a draft revised version of the Guidance (dated 15 September 2011) was developed and is available for the testing of its overall utility and applicability at http://bch.cbd.int/onlineconferences/ra_guidance/testing.shtml . Accordingly, I am pleased to invite you to provide the Guidance to the experts of your country or organization involved in risk assessment of LMOs to test for its overall utility and applicability. It is noted that testing initiatives may be conducted either as a group or individual exercise, such as face-to-face meetings, workshops or online discussions, and the results are to be reported back using the attached questionnaire in order to facilitate a coordinated analysis of the results. The completed questionnaire is to be mailed to the Secretariat at riskassessment.forum@cbd.int as a MS Word document as soon as possible but no later than 30 November 2011 (This notification and questionnaire are also available online at http://bch.cbd.int/onlineconferences/ra_guidance/testing.shtml.). The results from testing initiatives by Parties and other Governments are to be submitted with the endorsement of the National Focal Points and those by organizations through headquarters offices. The results of the testing, when available, will be made public through the BCH at http://bch.cbd.int/onlineconferences/ra_guidance/testing.shtml . Please accept, Madam/Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Executive Secretary

To: National Focal Points of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CBD when no CPB designated), Relevant Organizations