NDA (I & II) 2020 General Ability Test · Question 77 of 148

Correct — C, Cartagena. The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is the first supplementary agreement to the Convention on Biological Diversity, and it takes its name from Cartagena, Colombia, where the treaty was scheduled to be finalised in February 1999. Although the text was ultimately adopted in Montreal on 29 January 2000, negotiators kept the name of the Colombian city, so the protocol is associated with Cartagena.

• (a)Geneva — Geneva hosts many UN bodies (WHO, WTO, the Human Rights Council), but the biosafety protocol was neither concluded nor named there.
• (b)Nairobi — Nairobi is the headquarters of the UN Environment Programme and the venue of the 1992 Nairobi Final Act that adopted the text of the CBD — but the biosafety protocol is named after Cartagena, not Nairobi.
• (d)Rio de Janeiro — Rio de Janeiro is where the parent Convention on Biological Diversity was opened for signature at the 1992 Earth Summit — a tempting trap, but the biosafety protocol itself carries the name of Cartagena.

The Cartagena Protocol (2000) is a legally binding agreement under the Convention on Biological Diversity that governs the safe handling, transport and use of living modified organisms (LMOs) produced by modern biotechnology, so that they do not harm biodiversity or human health. It operationalises the precautionary approach for the trans-boundary movement of GMOs.

The distractors are all real biodiversity or UN locations, so guessing by 'sounds environmental' fails. The reliable hook is that the protocol was to be adopted at a meeting in Cartagena, Colombia — hence the name — even though the meeting reconvened in Montreal to finalise it.

• Full title — Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
• Adopted 29 January 2000 at Montreal, Canada; entered into force 11 September 2003.
• Named after Cartagena, Colombia, the originally scheduled venue (February 1999).
• It regulates trans-boundary movement of living modified organisms (LMOs/GMOs) and rests on the precautionary principle.

• Choosing Rio de Janeiro because the parent CBD was signed there in 1992.
• Assuming the naming city is the adoption city — it was adopted in Montreal but named after Cartagena.

Asked as 'which city/protocol is associated with biosafety under the CBD' — match Cartagena to biosafety and Nagoya to access-and-benefit-sharing.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is a supplementary agreement to which parent convention?

  • (a)Ramsar Convention
  • (b)Convention on Biological Diversity
  • (c)UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
  • (d)Basel Convention

  Answer(b) Convention on Biological Diversity — the protocol is its supplementary agreement on living modified organisms.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Nagoya Protocol, adopted under the Convention on Biological Diversity, primarily deals with

  • (a)trade in endangered species
  • (b)access to genetic resources and fair benefit-sharing
  • (c)transboundary movement of hazardous waste
  • (d)conservation of wetlands

  Answer(b) access to genetic resources and fair benefit-sharing (ABS).