Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa earlier this week published the draft amendment regulations on Bioprospecting, Access and Benefit Sharing (BABS) for public comment.

Bioprospecting comprised the systematic search for and development of new sources of chemical compounds, genes, micro-organisms, macro-organisms, and other valuable products from nature.

The draft amendment regulations were published under Section 100 of the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (NEMBA).

The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) explained that the amendments were first introduced in the BABS regulations, which were published for implementation in 2008, following which the National Environmental Laws Amendment Act (NEMLAA) of 2009, as well as the NEMLAA of 2013, which incorporated amendments to Chapter 6 of the NEMBA, were published for implementation.

In addition, in 2013, South Africa ratified the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit sharing and became the twelfth country to deposit its instrumentation of ratification, therefore, requiring it to be incorporated into the national legislative framework, the DEA said.

“The experiences gained in the past five years, since the implementation of the regulations, have assisted to identify a number of gaps and limiting provisions which require a review and substantial amendment to achieve the objectives of the regulations. These include concerns often raised by stakeholders on some of the legislative provisions,” the DEA said.

The department stated that these developments had resulted in an extensive stakeholder consultation process to develop draft BABS amendment regulations to close the gaps and limitations identified, while also giving effect to the provisions of the 2009 NEMLAA and 2013 NEMLAA, as well as to accommodate a few elements of the Nagoya Protocol.

“The noted key amendments in the draft regulations are the differentiation between bioprospecting and biotrade activities and timeframes for the permit application process,” the DEA said, adding that it was further also stated that permits would be differentiated.

It was further proposed that the requirements be sector specific, in particular with regard to required agreements and reporting.

There were also changes made in terms of the issuing authority responsibilities to provide support to the applicants, while the procedure for prior informed consent had been simplified to make it less challenging.

Stakeholders, the public and interested parties could participate in the process by submitting written comments within 30 days from February 17, when the draft amendments were published.