Korea Biosafety Clearing House (KBCH) is dedicated to the promotion of public awareness and exchange of information regarding living modified organisms (LMOs). While implementing the legal duties associated with LMO related information, as per the “Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety” and the “Act for Transboundary Movements, etc. of LMOs”(LMO Act), KBCH also functions as the national focal point of the biosafety clearing-house, installed under the “Cartagena protocol on biosafety,” and is now expanding internationally to particularly promote Asia cooperation with regard to biosafety.
Research Areas
Implementation of the Biosafety Protocol & LMO Act
Perform information-related duties such as collection and dissemination
Implementation of administrative matters (preparation of country reports, analysis of major issues in CPMOP, management of expert forums for discussion of major issues, etc.)
Support developing countries’ capacity-building efforts · Implementation of the LMO Act (for the operation of the Biosafety Committee, to provide support for the implementation of the LMO Act and achieve further improvements)
Industrial LMO safety management (operation of Industrial LMO Risk Assessment Committee, as consigned by the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, according to government guidelines)
Operation of Task Force Team & Leading discussions on the revision of legal system to Improve Regulation of New Biotechnology such as Genome Editing
Improvement of Public Awareness & Communication
Management of Biosafety portal, Asia Biosafety Family regional portal, and family sites
Publications such as the ‘Biosafety Whitepaper’ (biennial), ‘Biosafety’ Journal (semiannual), etc.
Hosting of communication activities (LMO forums, international seminars, debate competitions, KBCH reporters, etc.)
Survey & Research
Survey of public perceptions
Establishment of database exhibiting LMOs and BIO related statistics
LMOs and bioindustry trend analysis
Analysis of the industrial impact of the ABS Protocol
head
Investigator
Name
Position
Tel / Email
Gicheol Kim
Associate Director
/
Tel
042-879-8300
Email
kgccc@kribb.re.kr
Achievements
Compliance with the LMO Act and Biosafety Protocol
KBCH officially started its work in January 2008, when the LMO act and the Cartagena Protocl on Biosafety came into effect in Korea, even though its actual work in the management of LMO information began before. The primary mission of KBCH is to undertake the duties mandated by the LMO Act and Cartagena Protocl on Biosafety that are associated with information management, i.e. the transfer, handling, and use of LMOs. These duties include the collection and distribution of unbiased information about LMOs, as well as efforts to increase public awareness and participation in activities related to LMOs.
Promotion of public awareness and participation
To promote awareness and participation, KBCH puts efforts in order to ensure biosafety, as stipulated in the protocol. Above all, KBCH is trying to ensure that both positive and negative views on LMOs and find their ways to the public arena, through the promotion of open public discussions about all LMO-related issues.
To this end, it operates the “Korean Biosafety Portal,” participates in discussions on websites, and distributes materials published by KBCH, such as the semiannual “Biosafety”, a biennial “White Paper on Biosafety”, and various booklets. The center also hosts seminars (LMO forums, etc.), which are public events for sharing opinions and “Biosafety Debate Competition” among high school students every year.
Implementation of Korea biosafety capacity building initiative
At COP-MOP7 in 2014, Korea had proposed Korea Biosafety Capacity Building Initiative in order to contribute to BCH capacity building, along with parties of developing countries and economies in transition. Under the initiative, two main programs were implemented by KBCH. The first program aims to assist parties in Asia, to build capacities for their national BCH operations and achieve full compliance with the protocol. To achieve this, KBCH hosted the ‘5th Asia BCH Family-Informal Consultative Committee (ABF-ICC)’ in 2019. The second program aims to explore collaborative areas with regard to biosafety, among Asian countries. In 2018, KBCH held the ‘2nd Asia Forum: Genome Editing’ in Gangneung, in which 18 participants from 9 countries took part as either speakers or chair persons. This forum mainly focused on the development of genome editing technology and whether it should be regulated or not. Participants agreed to try to develop a regional cooperation system that could improve the level of safety management and follow-up on the world trends with regard to genome editing. With these activities, KBCH has been once again able to consolidate its status as the leader of the Asia Biosafety Family.
