On February 16, 2016, in the premises of the Restaurant Chez André, a workshop was held to raise awareness among decision-makers on the Nagoya Protocol. This workshop was organized as part of the project “Ratification and implementation of the Nagoya Protocol on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their use in member countries of the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC)”.

The holding of the workshop was also in accordance with article 21 of this Protocol relating to raising public awareness on the importance of Genetic Resources and traditional knowledge associated with them and on issues related to Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) arising from the use of these resources.

The highlights of this workshop were as follows:

• Ceremonies to open the workshop;
• Listen to and follow a video on APA;
• Presentation session;
• Exchanges and discussions on presentations;
• Committee work and presentation of the results in plenary.

The opening ceremonies of the workshop were mainly marked by an opening speech delivered by the Permanent Secretary who represented the Minister of Water, Environment, Land Use Planning and Urban Development (MEEATU) prevented. He said that beginning in the 1980s, several industrial sectors developed a contested practice of collecting the planet's natural resources and traditional knowledge about their proper use, in order to exploit them commercially.

These operations, conducted without prior authorization from the national authorities and without compensation mechanisms in favor of local populations, essentially constitute a transfer of wealth from the South (reservoir of most of the world's biodiversity) to the North, without monetary or non-monetary compensation. Before concluding his speech, he told the participants that the awareness-raising workshop was intended for the target group of decision makers so that they could learn about the challenges of the protocol and thus be able to make an informed decision on whether or not to grant access to genetic resources or national traditional knowledge. He ended his speech by thanking the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for their financial and technical support and invited participants to immerse themselves in ABS issues and contribute actively and effectively to the implementation of the Protocol.

The opening ceremonies were followed by the screening of a video on APA. The documentary concerned the origin of the Nagoya Protocol and some cases of ABS already known in Africa. After the screening of the video a session of 3 presentations followed and are as follows:

• The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Sharing of Benefits Arising from the Use of Genetic Resources;
• Access and sharing the benefits of using medicinal genetic resources: An appeal to traditional practitioners in Burundi;
• Burundian decision-makers facing the Nagoya Protocol.

During the first presentation, Mr. Nzigidahera Benoit, at the same time, the National Focal Point of the Nagoya Protocol, recalled the objectives of the Protocol, which are the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of biological resources and the fair and equitable sharing of the resulting benefits. The presenter also explained the concepts of bioprospecting and biopiracy as well as concerns about genetic resources.

He did not fail to emphasize that the Protocol aims to establish a climate of mutual trust between users and suppliers, to establish a more precise legal framework to ensure the ABS mechanism, legal certainty and access to justice for contract parties and to encourage suppliers to direct benefits towards the conservation of biodiversity. With regard to the scope of application, the speaker said that the Protocol applies to genetic resources (the genetic and/or biochemical composition of animals, plants, microbes and others for research and development purposes), to traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources, and to the benefits arising from their use. He also talked about non-applicable fields, which are the field of human genetic resources, genetic resources over which states do not exercise sovereign rights, genetic resources covered by sectoral ABS instruments (in particular those used for agriculture and food under FAO) and genetic resources used as raw materials for agricultural and food purposes (without research and development activities). He ended his presentation by talking about ABS obligations, which are access obligations, benefit-sharing obligations, and compliance obligations.

The second presentation, made by Ms. Marie Josée Bigendako, professor at the University of Burundi, concerned access and sharing the benefits of using medicinal genetic resources: An appeal launched to traditional practitioners in Burundi. The presentation allowed participants to immerse themselves in information on the state of access and sharing of benefits from medicinal genetic resources in Burundi, the ways in which benefits arising from the use of medicinal genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge are shared.

The participants were also briefed on the prerequisites for implementing the Nagoya Protocol in traditional medication. The speaker ended her presentation by talking about priority actions for this implementation.

During the third presentation, Mr. Nindorera Damien, legal advisor at OBPE, spoke about Burundian decision-makers in the face of the Nagoya Protocol. He mainly talked about the role of decision-makers in implementing the Nagoya Protocol, visible impacts in relation to the failing role of the target group and priority actions to correct trends.

This presentation session was followed by a moment of exchanges and discussions on the 3 presentations presented during the workshop.

The committee session followed the exchanges and discussions and then the results of the committee work were presented to the plenary. The work of the workshop ended at 15:30 local time by the National Focal Point of the Nagoya Protocol with a word of thanks and a wish to meet the participants again during subsequent awareness-raising sessions and the development of the strategy for implementing the Protocol.