Recognising the importance of negotiation skills in international fora, the Biodiversity and Forestry Management Division of the Ministry of Water, Land and Natural Resources organised a simulation exercise on Conference of Parties proceedings.

This session was facilitated by Dato’ Dr. Gurdial Singh Nijar and Ms. Gan Pei Fern. Both facilitators possess extensive knowledge and experience negotiating on behalf of Malaysia in international biodiversity conventions like the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). The facilitators also presented about the Access to Biological Resources and Benefit Sharing Act 2017.

Participants of the simulation exercise included policymakers and senior officials from several biodiversity related ministries and agencies. This includes the Ministry of Urban Development and Natural Resources Sarawak, Forest Department Sarawak (SFD), Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC), Sarawak Biodiversity Centre (SBC), Sabah Forestry Department, Sabah Biodiversity Centre (SaBC), Department of Wildlife and National Parks (PERHILITAN), Forestry Department Peninsular Malaysia (JPSM), Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM), PLANMalaysia, Department of Fisheries (DOF) and Department of Agriculture (DOA).

Participants were divided into 5 groups representing 5 major negotiating blocs at the COPs and were tasked to prepare interventions on the text for Digital Sequence Information of Genetic Resources (DSI).