Institute of Biodiversity Conservation

16 September 2011, Addis Ababa: The entry into force of the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Protocol and its future effective implementation makes it necessary for national ABS focal points, competent national authorities and stakeholders in this field to better understand the needs and concerns of IPR-negotiators and national IPR authorities and vice versa. ABS and IPRs are very complex matters which are being negotiated in parallel by different negotiators and in different fora (CBD, WTO-TRIPS, WIPO, etc.) and implemented at national level by different ministries with different political agendas as well as diverse expectations, needs and concerns. A better understanding of the diverse realities, expectations and concerns is central in facilitating the effective implementation of national and subregional ABS provisions that are linked to IPRs.

Subsequent to the treatment of the Aloaceae, with 38 species of Aloe in the Flora of Ethiopia, four more species, Aloe bertemariae Sebsebe & Dioli, A. friisii Sebsebe & M. G. Gilbert, A. clarkei L. E. Newton and A. elkerriana Dioli & T. A. McCoy have been described from Ethiopia. Here four additional new species are described: Aloe benishangulana Sebsebe & Tesfaye from near Assosa, Benishangul-Gumuz in Welega floristic region; A. ghibensis Sebsebe & Friis from the Ghibe Gorge, Kefa floristic region; A. weloensis Sebsebe from near Dessie in Welo floristic region and A. welmelensis Sebsebe & Nordal along the Welmel River in Bale floristic region.

Thursday, Sept. 01, 2011- A brief meeting that discussed on the hitherto implementation efforts of Global Environmental Facility (GEF) projects on biodiversity conservation was held at the Institute of Biodiversity Conservation (IBC) here in Addis Ababa. Dr. Kasahun Embaye, Acting Director General of IBC, welcomed the guests and presented a brief introduction about the institute. He also informed to the participants about the main accomplishments of the institute, namely: conserving more than 65000 accessions in the main gene bank in cold storage, establishing six ex-situ field gene banks, 6 in-situ sites of forestry species and 12 on-farm community gene banks. The institute has distributed more than 90000 accessions to researchers which is one of the major achievements in sustainable utilization of genetic resources. The Institute has also signed two ABS agreements with foreign companies though a lot remains in this regard.