Hungary is to sign the Nagoya Protocol in New York on behalf of the European Union. The worldwide treaty will be jointly signed by Hungary and the EU's Ambassador in New York. In addition to Hungary, the globally valid agreement on access to genetic resources and the profits arising from these will be signed by a further eight EU Member States.

Following years of discussion, the Nagoya Protocol was unanimously adopted last October by the nations participating in the Agreement on Biodiversity, thanks to the great readiness of both developing and economically developed countries to come to a compromise on the issue. The parties undertook to preserve natural diversity, to decrease the reduction of natural habitats and to divide the profits of genetic resources fairly.

The international agreement states that any party that uses genetic resources, such as a cosmetics or pharmaceutical company that uses plants or active substances extracted from them to develop its product, shall be obliged to return part of the profits to the country or community that preserved the given resource.

The level of remuneration, and whether it should be paid to the given country in monetary or through other means, shall be agreed between the parties in a separate contract. The share of the profits in question must be put towards nature conservation. Until now, it has been impossible to know exactly what large multinationals do with the acquired natural resources and what advantages they enjoy as a result. It was often the case that the country that had worked to preserve the plant of animal didn't receive a cent from the often multimillion dollar profits.

The Nagoya Protocol may be signed in New York between February 02, 2011 and February 01, 2012 and 24 countries have signed the agreement so far. In addition to the EU, Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Finland, Holland, Luxembourg, Hungary and Germany will also sign the treaty on June 23.

(Press Office of the Ministry of Rural Development)