Indonesia's Regulation on the Biosafety of Genetically Engineered Products

Abstract

Introduction

On 19 May 2005, Indonesia set into force Regulation Number 21 on the Biosafety of Genetically Engineered Products (hereinafter: Biosafety Regulation), which implements not only basic requirements of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Biosaftey Protocol, but also several provisions of Law Number 23 of 1997 on Environmental Management. According to art. 2 (1), the purpose of this Regulation is to ensure an adequate level of environmental safety, food safety and or animal feed safety of genetically engineered products (GEP) and its use in the area of agriculture, fishery, forestry, industry, environment and nonpharmaceutical health. In addition, the regulation should improve efficiency and effectiveness of GEP use for the people's welfare based on the principles of health and biological resource management, consumer protection and certainty in operating business. The regulation includes provisions on the type and requirement of GEP, research on and development of GEP, importation of GEP from foreign countries, assessment, release, and distribution and use of GEP, control of GEP, as well as on the institutional framework and cost.