AUDA-NEPAD Sharpens MEPA on Biosafety
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Malawi Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) in partnership with the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) Environment and Sustainability Division recently held a virtual training that brought different experts across the global to build capacity for the National Biosafety Regulatory Committee on stack traits in Genetics, a branch of biology. The meeting was also graced by members of the Agriculture Technology Transfer Committee in the Department of Agriculture Research Services. CHARLES MKOKA of AUDA-NEPAD Agenda 2063 Media Network spoke to LILIAN CHIMPHEPO PhD, Focal Point for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and Biosafety Registrar at MEPA to shed light on the status of this technically challenging sector for non-scientists in Malawi.
Briefly explain Biosafety and why it is an important area in environmental management?
The concept of biosafety encompasses a range of measures, policies and procedures for minimizing potential risks that biotechnology may pose to the environment and human health. With regards to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), measures are put in place to ensure that their use, handling and transfer does not pose any threat to biodiversity and risk to human health. Malawi has put in place legal and institutional framework that regulates all activities regarding the use of GMOs. No person is allowed to undertake activities or release in the environment GMOs without getting license or permit under the Biosafety Act of 2002. It is key to note that Malawi is rich in biodiversity and whatever technologies we are adopting as a country should not cause any threat to other living organisms. Hence when the country is adopting GM technology, safety assessment must be done to avoid losing the genetic diversity for our crops/plants and other organisms. This is one of the reasons why biosafety is important for environmental sustainability and biodiversity conservation.
We understand the National Biosafety Regulatory Committee is within the Malawi Environment Protection Authority. What is the relevance of having this within MEPA's rank and file?
MEPA is regulatory body that is mandated by the Environment Management Act (2017) to ensure that the environment is protected through among others regulating development initiatives and enforcing environmental standard that aim at promoting sustainable development and environmental sustainability. Biosafety being a regulatory function, it is well placed in MEPA’s structure. Furthermore, the Environment Management Act of 2017 under section 69 (g) stipulates that the authority shall, in consultation with relevant lead agencies, prescribe measures and issue guidelines to promote the conservation of biological resources in situ in relation to; safe handling, transfer and use of Living Modified Organisms (LMOs) developed through modern biotechnology that may have adverse impact on biodiversity, human health and the environment. For this reason, a committee of experts like NBRC is relevant in MEPA to regulate LMOs developed through modern biotechnology.
Issues involving Biosafety are technically challenging for non-experts. What are doing to ensure you raise the much-needed awareness to the public to understand these issues to curb the spread unverified news.
Indeed, a lot of the terms used in biosafety are technical and need to be simplified to ensure that non-scientists can easily understand. The country has developed a National Biosafety Communication Strategy that guides biosafety communication at various levels, different messages have been developed for different target audiences using different communication channels such as radio, TV, social media and awareness campaigns. Messages targeting the general public will be translated into vernacular to reach out to all. We are hoping that through this communicated strategy the issues revolving around biotechnology will be disseminated to Malawians, for non - scientists to understood.
There have been concerns on issues related to Genetically Modified Organisms that they might have a bearing on crops health, human life and the environment at large. What are you doing to clarify misconceptions and fears arising from the same?
As earlier alluded to, MEPA plus other key strategic partners such as the Association of Environment Journalists are working together in this course. There are already plans to create more awareness on the processes that are taken before GMO’s are released in the environment or used as food or feed. Rigorous assessments are done to ensure that GMOs are safe for the environment and that they don’t pose any risk to human health before being approved for general release into the environment. This is the whole essence of biosafety. It takes National Biosafety Regulatory Committee which is a team of experts from various sectors including Health, Consumers Association of Malawi, Malawi Bureau of Standard, Police, Justice and Nutrition and HIV/AIDS among others to review and analyze the safety of any GMO before it is released for commercialization.
AUDA-NEPAD was capacitating the NBRC as a combined oversight team of experts on stack traits at national level? How important is this to MEPA?
Modern biotechnology is globally being adopted as one of the most effective tools in addressing most of the challenges in the sectors of agriculture and health. In agriculture modern biotechnology has been employed to develop pest/disease resistant varieties while in health biotechnology is used in developing vaccines. With stack trait breeding scientists are able to combine more than one GM traits in one plant to address multiple challenges at once. Stack breeding can develop a crop which is disease resistant and drought tolerant simultaneously. With stack breeding as one of the emerging technologies, the country must be ready to handle any upcoming application hence the importance of having regulators trained.
What are your final words in as far as Biosafety issues are concerned in Malawi?
Finally, I wish to inform the general public that Government through MEPA is committed in ensuring that no technology or product of biotechnology is adopted unless proven safe for human health, biodiversity and the environment. Decisions for approval of GMOs are informed by science and case by case risk assessment results. Secondly the review process for applications for conducting activities related to GMO’s is transparent and open for public participation.