Session
Natural Resources Law and Sustainable Development Research Group
Eduardo Leal, UFG, Technical Community and Academia, LAC
Umut Pajaro, [email protected] , Melmo University and YCIG, Academia and Civil Society, WEOG
Denise Leal, [email protected], Academia and Civil Society, UnB and YCIG, LAC region
9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
14. Life Below Water
15. Life on Land
17. Partnerships for the Goals
Targets: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to this session are primarily SDG 15 (Life on Land) and SDG 14 (Life Below Water). SDG 15 focuses on protecting, restoring, and promoting sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, including biodiversity conservation. The session addresses the issue of biodiversity protection in the digital era, particularly regarding genetic resources accessed through databases. Similarly, SDG 14 aims to conserve and sustainably use marine resources, which aligns with the broader concept of biodiversity preservation. By discussing the need for compliance mechanisms to regulate the access and use of genetic resources on digital platforms, the session contributes to achieving these SDGs by promoting responsible and sustainable management of biodiversity, both on land and in marine environments. Additionally, the session's focus on environmental protection and sustainable development resonates with the overarching goal of promoting sustainable practices and ensuring the well-being of ecosystems and biodiversity.
The session also relates to SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). SDG 9 emphasizes the importance of resilient infrastructure, fostering innovation, and promoting sustainable industrialization, which are relevant to discussions about internet governance and digital infrastructure. SDG 17 underscores the significance of global partnerships and cooperation in achieving sustainable development objectives, which aligns with the session's aim to address environmental protection laws and internet regulation through multilateral mechanisms and collaborative efforts. Therefore, the session contributes to advancing these SDGs by promoting sustainable practices in internet governance and fostering international partnerships to address environmental challenges in the digital era.
This is a 30 minutes lighting talk, with the introduction of the moderator (5 minutes), the speaker going through the session topic (15 minutes), and then a space for dialogues and questions from the online and onsite community. The format of a 30-minute lighting talk offers a concise yet comprehensive overview of the session's topic.
This session goes through the access of genetic resources through databases, the keypoint is the data management of genetic resources on digital sequence information. The content of this lighting talk comes from dialogues on IGF 2023, NetMundial 2024 and also the master thesis that the speaker developed in Brasília University (Brazil) along with the Natural Resources Law and Sustainable Development Research Group, the expected outcomes of this session is not only bring data and publicize the research, but also collect experiences from other sectors and summarize possibilities on the problematic situation that is the focus point of the discussion.
There aren’t many compliance multilateral mechanisms or tools to guarantee effective enforcement and the accountability related to environmental protection laws, and when it comes to internet and databases the situation is problematic with continuous violations on the rights related to the use of genetic resources and biodiversity through open access and unlimited databases access. There is an urge to monitor DSI databases, but developed countries won’t do the first move, because they are being benefited with the absence of regulation related to internet, databases and genetic resources, on the other hand, developing countries, with megadiverse biomes, have not made the political move neither the regulatory efforts to solve this internet problem, which is: truly regulate the internet towards implementation of compliance mechanisms to protect biodiversity use on open access databases.
In decision on september 15th, 2023, the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity decided to establish a multilateral mechanism for the benefit-sharing from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources, which, experts hope, can lead the road to boost better solutions to biodiversity use in digital era; NetMundial 2024 had diverse comments on sustainability and the importance on using internet as a tool for better protect environment; we now come to IGF space hoping to connect with its ecosystem and build bridges towards solutions about environment and internet.
With a brief introduction, focused presentation, and dedicated time for dialogue, this session will maximize engagement and information dissemination within a limited timeframe. Tentative agenda:
5’: Introduction and background. The moderator explains how the session will take place and points out that attendees can ask questions by using the hand-raising option or in the chat (online), or by requesting the floor (onsite).
15’: The moderator introduces the policy issues and addresses the speakers with questions in a roundtable fashion.
8’: Open floor. The moderator invites all participants to take the floor either online or onsite.
2’: Key takeaways (rapporteur) and conclusions.
This approach allows for the efficient communication of key points, such as the management of genetic resources on digital platforms, while also facilitating active participation from both online and onsite communities. Additionally, by sharing insights from academic research and real-world experiences, the session aims to generate valuable discussions and identify potential solutions to pressing environmental and internet governance challenges.