The Cartagena Protocol is part of the Convention on Biological Diversity, described by Klaus Töpfer, the executive director of UNEP, as “an attempt to reconcile [...] trade and environmental protection issues.” He explains that the Protocol is the first legal environmental treaty to institutionalize “the precautionary approach,” under which a given nation can act on the assumption that biological diversity (in this case) is threatened by GMOs. At the administrative core of the Protocol is the “advanced informed agreement procedure;” this puts the onus for risk evaluation on nations exporting GMOs and allows importing countries to decide whether to accept the shipment (Nat. Biotechnol. 18, 17, 2000). Töpfer says that making sure that developing nations have the skills and systems in place for assessing imports is “crucial to the success” of the Protocol. “This is why this multimillion dollar capacity building project is so important,” he stresses.
However, critics say that UNEP's program has little to do with “capacity building.” Calestous Juma at the Center for International Development at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) argues that the money available to each country—around $400,000—will be ineffectual. “Much of the [money] will go to consultancies and the rest will be used largely to cover workshop costs,” he says. “It is disingenuous to call this 'capacity building' without providing long-term support for institutional development and professional training.” Juma remarks that the fact that so little funding is available “suggests that the threat of genetically modified organisms is not as significant as previously suggested.” On the other hand, he argues that if the threat were more significant, “the negligible funding would result in a false sense of safety.” UNEP itself does recognize that real capacity building in this area is much more expensive. (In another part of its Cartagena support program—the “demonstration projects”—nine countries, including Mexico and Bulgaria, will receive funding to make advanced implementation preparations. The budget for each “demonstration project,” and for similar programs funded through other UN agencies, could be in excess of $5 million.)
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