THE Senate on Thursday passed an amended version of a House bill that would establish laws to regulate bioprospecting activities within the Commonwealth.
The bill defines bioprospecting as “any search, analysis, or study of naturally occurring biological processes, organic compounds, living or dead organisms, genetic information and DNA, and any other naturally occurring substances, processes, and outputs found in the CNMI, for the purposes of discovering something useful or commercially valuable, whether or not the search, analysis, or study is conducted on-site or if materials were removed for off-site investigative processing.”
Authored by House Minority Leader Angel A. Demapan, House Bill 22-22 aims “to ensure prior, informed consent and equitable sharing of benefits.”
The Senate version of the bill was based on the recommendation of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Government, Law and Federal Relations chaired by Sen. Karl King-Nabors.
Similar measures were introduced in the 18th, 19th, and 20th Legislatures, the committee noted.
It was first introduced by former Rep. Richard B. Seman in the 18th, former Rep. Anthony T. Benavente in the 19th, and Demapan in the 20th.
The amendments proposed by the Senate committee were recommended by Attorney General Edward Manibusan and Rota Mayor Efraim Atalig.
Mayor Atalig recommended that throughout the bill, the word “state” should be replaced with “CNMI.”
The Office of the Attorney General recommended that language be included in the legislation to ensure that during the licensing process, owners of private land and public land lease holders are duly protected.
The committee agreed to these recommendations and incorporated the necessary amendments in H.B. 22-22, House Draft 1, Senate Draft 1.
The Senate version now states that this Act applies only to non-federal lands and waters owned by the CNMI and its municipalities and any other government agency that is not the federal government.
It further states that the Act does not apply to private lands. Permission from a private landowner must be obtained to conduct any bioprospecting on private lands.
The House bill was further amended to require licensing for bioprospecting, through an application process, as opposed to just registering.
A public hearing was not scheduled for H.B. 22-22, but the Senate committee met to deliberate on the provisions of the bill as well as to consider the comments provided by the AG’s office, Rota Mayor Atalig and Tinian Mayor Edwin P. Aldan.
The Senate version of the bill would result in additional costs to the CNMI government for the purposes of training, registration, and enforcement, the committee noted.
However, the environmental and economic benefits that may result from its enactment outweigh any fiscal costs, the committee added.
The bill states that bioprospecting does not include horticultural cultivation, except for horticultural genetic engineering conducted in a manner otherwise constituting prospecting; an agricultural enterprise; a forest and range management practice; invasive weed management; or incidental removal of materials while engaged in bona fide research or commercial enterprises provided removed materials are not used for bioprospecting.
The Senate version of this bill now goes to the House for action.
Angel Demapan
