On the 3rd of December 2024, Ocean Community was present at the presentation of the most recent NOVA Ocean Knowledge Center event, “Promoting Blue Biotechnology in Portugal: Legal Certainty on the Access and Use of Marine Genetic Resources under National Jurisdiction.”
During the event it was possible to listen and engage with several specialists regarding the Ocean Governance sector such as the Portuguese Secretary of State for the Sea, Lídia Bulcão; the Coordinator of the Masters in Law and Economics of the Sea from NOVA University, Assunção Cristas, the CEO of Oceano Azul Foundation, Tiago Pitta e Cunha; the Leader of the Research Line in Marine Biotechnology at CIIMAR, Pedro Leão; Vitor Vasconcelos, Full Professor at the Sciences Faculty of the University of Porto and Narcisa Bandarra, Head of Aquaculture and Upgrading Division at IPMA.
This event held two panel discussions, the first one related to the most recent research paper made by NOVA Ocean Knowledge Center associated with the Portuguese Blue Biobank Project where legislation was drafted to protect Biological/ Genetic Resources from the Portuguese Waters. This legislation promotes legal certainty to the R&D exploitation of these resources, creating a piece of legislation draft that is easy to access, easy to use, and credible for scientists and investors. One of the other main issues related to this legislation is the promotion of sustainable use of these resources, to be competitive, to promote conservation and protection of biodiversity, and also follow the international treaties, such as UNCLOS (United Nations Convention of Law of the Sea), CBD (Convention of Biological Diversity), and BBNJ agreement (Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction) to promote investments on Blue Biotechnology sector, where Portugal is one of the World Leaders. A methodology of comparative analyses, followed by the legislative drafting with several workshops with stakeholders in this sector such as CIIMAR, Universidade de Aveiro, IPMA, TÉCNICO LISBOA, CCMAR, and INSTITUTO GULBENKIAN DE CIÊNCIA was done for creating a legislation practical with impact on real-life issues. On the second panel, a discussion was made about the future of the Blue Biotechnology sector in Portugal where it was possible to look at the future of this sector from a multidisciplinary perspective from a scientific, legislative, and economic perspective.
In The End, this event was an excellent opportunity to network and learn more about the Blue Biotechnology sector in Portugal. We would like to congratulate NOVA Ocean Knowledge Center in the person of Professor Assunção Cristas for this event and the project, and Manuela Bocayuva and her team for making this project possible.
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