The creation of a biodiversity fund to which companies will contribute a portion of profits earned from digitised genomes of flora and fauna was approved on Tuesday at the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP16, in Rome.
The companies expected to participate in the Fund include those from the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, agriculture, and biotechnology sectors that have developed products based on characteristics of flora or fauna.
Participating companies would contribute either 0.1% of their revenue or 1% of their profits to the fund, known as the Cali Fund, with at least half of the contributions benefiting indigenous and local communities. Contributions will be voluntary.
The concept of the fund was initially discussed last year’s at COP16 in Cali, Colombia. However, no conclusion could be adopted there as too many delegations had already left.
The fund was finally adopted by participating countries when the conference resumed this week in Rome. It is still empty since no company has made a commitment.
