Bart Van Vooren Appointed to Represent Private Sector on Steering Committee of the United Nations' Global Biodiversity Fund

BRUSSELS—Bart Van Vooren was selected to represent the private sector as an observer on the Steering Committee of the newly launched Cali Fund for Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits from the Use of Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources (Cali Fund).

Launched at COP15 of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in 2022, the Cali Fund is a global mechanism intended to raise at least USD 1 billion in contributions from commercial users of digital data on non-human biological materials. The Cali Fund invites contributions of 1% of global profits, or 0,1% of global revenue, from companies that rely on digital data from nature in their commercial activities. Sectors targeted include agriculture, biotechnology, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, devices, and artificial intelligence.

“The Cali Fund is a game-changer for companies that use digital sequence information. While I will serve as an observer, not a voting member, I intend to act as a bridge between the private sector and the Fund’s governance,” Bart said regarding his appointment. “My goal is to foster transparency, constructive dialogue, and technical understanding of the private sector to the Fund to ensure that companies’ innovation realities are reflected in its operations and future development.”

Bart has a broad life sciences practice supporting innovative pharmaceutical, food, medtech and biotech companies on EU regulatory, commercial and strategic policy assignments. He is widely recognized for being an authority on general EU law and procedure, as well as his extensive litigation experience before the EU Court of Justice in dozens of cases.

Over the past seven years, Bart has developed a unique practice on compliance with the Biodiversity Convention and the Nagoya Protocol, a set of rules to combat bio-piracy worldwide. He has accumulated unique, practical experience in dozens of jurisdictions around the world, and has handled everything from benefit-sharing negotiations, over compliance programs, to inspections by authorities.