Decision COP XIII/18

MO’OTZ KUXTAL VOLUNTARY GUIDELINES

Voluntary guidelines for the development of mechanisms, legislation or other appropriate initiatives to ensure the “prior and informed consent”,  “free, prior and informed consent” or “approval and involvement”, depending on national circumstances, of indigenous peoples and local communities  for accessing their knowledge, innovations and practices, for fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of their knowledge, innovations and practices relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, and for reporting and preventing unlawful appropriation of traditional knowledge

Recalling the programme of work on the implementation of Article 8(j) and related provisions in decision V/16, as well as subsequent relevant decisions, including decision XII/12 D,

1. Welcomes and adopts the Voluntary Guidelines as contained in the annex to the present decision;

2. Invites Parties and other Governments to use the Voluntary Guidelines, as appropriate;

3. Invites Parties, other Governments, relevant organizations and indigenous peoples and local communities to promote the guidelines through appropriate educational and awareness-raising activities, as appropriate;

4. Also invites Parties, other Governments, relevant organizations and indigenous peoples and local communities to make available through the clearing-house mechanism, where appropriate, best practices, lessons learned and good examples of community protocols relevant to access and benefit-sharing arising from the use of traditional knowledge;

5. Invites Parties to report on experiences gained by using the Voluntary Guidelines through the national reports;

6. Invites Parties, other Governments, relevant organizations and indigenous peoples and local communities to promote regional cooperation and share experiences and best practices on relevant measures, including approaches and measures relating to traditional knowledge shared across borders, where they exist;

7. Also invites Parties, other Governments, relevant organizations and indigenous peoples and local communities to submit their views concerning measures to address publicly available traditional knowledge to the Executive Secretary, and requests the Executive Secretary to compile the measures and views received and make the results available for the consideration of the Working Group on Article 8(j) and Related Provisions at its tenth meeting, in order to contribute to the finalization of Tasks 7 and 12 of the revised multi-year programme of work on Article 8(j) and related provisions, as appropriate;

8. Further invites Parties, other Governments, relevant organizations and indigenous peoples and local communities to submit their views concerning best practices to implement “prior and informed consent”, “free, prior and informed consent” or “approval and involvement” to the Executive Secretary, and requests the Executive Secretary, to compile the information on best practices received and make the results available for the consideration of the Working Group on Article 8(j) and Related Provisions at its tenth meeting, in order to contribute to the finalization of Tasks 7 and 12 of the revised multi-year programme of work on Article 8(j) and related provisions, as appropriate;

9. Invites relevant international agreements, agencies, and organizations to take into consideration the guidance contained in the annex to the present decision in the implementation of their work;

10. Invites the Global Environment Facility, international funding institutions and development agencies and relevant non-governmental organizations, to consider, consistent with their mandates, providing financial and technical assistance to developing country Parties, indigenous peoples and local communities, particularly women within these communities, to raise awareness and to build their capacity relevant to the implementation of the guidelines, and to develop, as appropriate, community protocols or processes for “prior and informed consent”, “free, prior and informed consent” or “approval and involvement”, depending on national circumstances, for fair and equitable benefit-sharing.