Director General of the Vietnam Environment Administration Nguyen Van Tai said after the Nagoya protocol took effect in 2014, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) have worked together to design the project.
The project will be carried out over the course of four years with a total budget of US$12.5 million. The Global Environment Fund will provide US$2 million through the UNDP and the remaining will be funded by the Vietnamese government and technical assistance from international organisations.
Dr. Nguyen Van Tai said the project was created in order to build a legal corridor for the fair sharing of the benefits of genetic resources between Vietnam and those who wish to access the country’s genetic resources.
The project’s main goal is to assist with the building of relevant policies on the management of access to genetic resources and the fair sharing of their benefits in Vietnam.
It will also pilot models for using herbal genetic resources and traditional knowledge on healthcare from the Dao Do tribe in Lao Cai Province.
Participants at the conference heard and contributed their feedback on a report on the project and a plan for the project’s implementation.
Vietnam is ranked sixteenth in the world in terms of bio-diversity.
