Third National Report on the implementation of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety

Since Lao PDR has become a party of the Convention on Biological Diversity on September 20, 1996 and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety on November 1, 2004. The Lao government is obliged to develop its national regulatory framework in the field of the safe transfer, handling and use of living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology for reducing potential consequences that may have an adverse effect biological diversity and human health. Laos has participated in a UNEF/GEF funded project to develop National Biosafety Framework (NBF). The NBF has been developed since 2002 and was adopted by the government on December 25, 2004. It consists of a combination of policy, legal, administrative and technical instruments that are set in place to address safety contains of six components including the government policy on Biosafety, the regulatory regime for Biosafety, administrative systems for Biosafety, mechanism for public education awareness and participation, capacity building programs to implement CPB and project priorities to implement the NBF.