A Way Forward: New Trends in Technology and Relevance of Socio-economic Assessment

Abstract

When CPB was negotiated, concern was on the impacts of GMOs. But now there are new technological developments such as Gene Drives, GM Mosquitoes and Gene Edited Crops. These developments are likely to have far reaching consequences than GMO as they have the potential for far more wider applications and raise ethical, legal and regulatory challenges. At the same time, whether the regulatory regimes developed for GMOs and genetic engineering would be adequate to govern them is a big question. CBD is trying to address challenges such as synthetic biology and assess their impacts for biodiversity. Will Article 26.1 be relevant for governing these technologies and what role it can play in governing them is a question. But given their impacts on environment, particularly on biodiversity, it is likely that CPB may emerge as the most important international instrument in global governance of some of these technologies. In case of Gene Edited Crops, the regulatory regime is emerging and likely to take final shape in the next few years. In this chapter it is contended that Socio-Economic Assessment is important in any governance regime for these technologies and CPB through Article 26.1 can enable development of such assessments. Further it is also stated that while lessons from implementation of Article 26.1 are important, to face these new challenges the current guideline frameworks and methodologies will have to be revised.