[Nhcoll-l] Decision of the EU Commission acknowledging the CETAF Code of Conduct as Best as Best Practise for ABS compliance

[Dirk Neumann]

Dear all,

even though ABS & Nagoya is surely not among the most appealing items we 
love or wish to discuss inside our community, we are happy to announce 
that the European Natural History collections and Botanic Gardens, 
untied under CETAF - the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities, 
were informed that the European Commission (finally) acknowledged our 
CETAF Code of Conduct and officially as the first Best Practice to 
support user compliance.

The CETAF Code of Conduct is open for members and non-members of CETAF 
and offers guidance to review internal management and procedures.

Even though we had to produce more then 90 pages to answer to paragraphs 
in the respective EU ABS law and went through a process that kept us 
busy for more than four years, we are there: The first officially 
recognised ABS measure by EU legislators is pretty much bottom-up, we 
looked into own procedures and evaluated existing workflows in order to 
develop procedures that support our community to manage their ABS 
responsibilities.

You can find the latest version on the CETAF website 
https://www.cetaf.org/services/natural-science-collections-and-access-and-benefit-sharing 
and on the webpages of the European Commission here 
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/biodiversity/international/abs/pdf/CETAF%20Best%20Practice%20-%20Annex%20to%20Commission%20Decision%20C(2019)%203380%20final.pdf

If you are curious how it looks like to engage with your legislators and 
how interesting it can be to go through an official recognition process 
in the EU, please follow this link 
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/biodiversity/international/abs/pdf/Commission%20Decision%20C(2019)%203380%20final%20-%20EN.pdf

The good think is that both sides learned a lot during the process, an I 
can only encourage all, to engage with legislators: active input and 
engagement of scientists is desperately needed! Even though we received 
though feedback, our application was highly appreciated by the EU COM as 
bottom-up approach to support taxonomic/biodiversity research. Another 
fact is - even though not too many are really enthusiastic on ABS: we 
cannot ignore it.

The CETAF ABS group is planning another ABS training this autumn likely 
in Brussels (TBC), which is open for all that would wish to attend (will 
circulate dates). We are also currently looking into opportunities with 
the organisation committee of the next SPNHC meeting in Edinburgh  to 
run an ABS workshop in 2020.


On behalf of the CETAF ABS Working group,

have a nice weekend and with best wishes

Dirk



-- 
Dirk Neumann

Tel: 089 / 8107-111
Fax: 089 / 8107-300
*new email: neumann(a)snsb.de*

Postanschrift:

Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns
Zoologische Staatssammlung München
Dirk Neumann, Sektion Ichthyologie / DNA-Storage
Münchhausenstr. 21
81247 München

Besuchen Sie unsere Sammlung:
http://www.zsm.mwn.de/sektion/ichthyologie-home/

---------

Dirk Neumann

Tel: +49-89-8107-111
Fax: +49-89-8107-300
*new email: neumann(a)snsb.de*

postal address:

Bavarian Natural History Collections
The Bavarian State Collection of Zoology
Dirk Neumann, Section Ichthyology / DNA-Storage
Muenchhausenstr. 21
81247 Munich (Germany)

Visit our section at:
http://www.zsm.mwn.de/sektion/ichthyologie-home/