The COP10 biological meeting in Nagoya, which ended Oct. 30, produced the Nagoya Protocol (governing access to genetic resources) and the Aichi Targets (aimed at greatly reducing biodiversity loss). Japan, the COP10 chair, and other countries will have to take steps to flesh out these achievements.
Japan must enact related laws that will serve as models for other parties to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). It also must quickly ratify the protocol.
In working out the protocol, developed and developing countries clashed on how to equitably distribute profits derived from the production and sale of medicines and chemicals that utilize genetic resources from plants or animals.