Up to Dhs3m fine, jail for violating UAE laws concerning plant genetic resources

The Federal National Council (FNC), in its twelfth session held on Wednesday at Zayed Hall at the Council's headquarters in Abu Dhabi, chaired by Mariam Bint Thania, Second Deputy Speaker of the FNC, and attended by Amna Bint Abdullah Al Dahak Al Shamsi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, approved a draft federal law concerning plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, consisting of 27 articles.

The draft included severe penalties, stipulating that they do not prejudice any harsher penalty provided for by any other law.

The draft law states that anyone who commits any of the following acts shall be punished by jail for a period not exceeding three years and by a fine of not less than Dhs50,000 and not exceeding Dhs3 million, or by one of these two penalties:

Engaging in any activity related to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture or their derivatives without obtaining a licence, or exporting any plant genetic resources for food and agriculture or their derivatives outside the UAE without a valid material transfer agreement, or importing plant genetic resources for food and agriculture or genetic materials or their derivatives into the UAE without a licence, or failing to declare to customs officials what they possess of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture or genetic materials or their derivatives, or collecting plant genetic resources for food and agriculture within their natural sites or their derivatives or traditional knowledge or innovations without a licence, or obtaining plant genetic resources for food and agriculture from within the UAE or their derivatives without concluding a valid material transfer agreement.

The penalty shall be doubled in case of repeated commission of any of the acts referred to in this article within one year from the date of conviction for committing one of the criminalised acts under this article, or if the act results in serious harm to biodiversity in the UAE.

The draft law aims at a set of objectives, including: monitoring, collecting, classifying, evaluating, documenting, and protecting plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and their derivatives, and traditional knowledge, and preserving, exploring, and regulating access to them, and sustaining their utilisation, and regulating the entry and exit of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and genetic materials and their derivatives from and to the UAE, and ensuring fair and equitable sharing of benefits resulting from the use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and their derivatives and traditional knowledge.