Which of the following protocols/Conventions are supplementary to the…

Concept: A multilateral environmental convention can generate supplementary instruments — protocols negotiated and adopted under that parent convention’s own framework, by its own Conference of the Parties, and legally subordinate to it. Whether an instrument is supplementary therefore depends on the parent treaty it was adopted under, not on whether its subject matter sounds environmental.

A separate treaty on another subject, an amendment to a different convention, and a non-binding summit or declaration are all outside that parent-treaty relationship, however important they may be in their own right.

Application: The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), opened for signature at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, provides in Article 28 for the adoption of protocols. Two such protocols have been adopted under the CBD:

• Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety — adopted 2000, in force 2003; regulates the safe handling and transboundary movement of living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology.

• Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits — adopted 2010, in force 2014; regulates access to genetic resources and the sharing of benefits arising from their use.

(The Nagoya–Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress, 2010, is in turn supplementary to the Cartagena Protocol, and so also sits inside the CBD family.)

Cross-check: mapping each listed instrument to the framework it actually belongs to makes the CBD family explicit.

Result: Only the Cartagena Protocol and the Nagoya Protocol were adopted under the CBD, so the instruments supplementary to the Convention on Biological Diversity among those listed are the Cartagena Protocol and the Nagoya Protocol.