Richard J. Blaustein: Thanks very much for being here. I'm Rich Blaustein. I'm a member of the D.C. Bar Environment and Natural Resources Section. Thank you very much for coming for this conversation and presentation on Equity and Commercial Rights for Genetic Resources. I say great thanks to Jim Rubin for all the support. He's the co-chair of our Environment Section at D.C. Bar and I'll give him the microphone to say hello on behalf of all our different sponsors.

This will be about the fourth event connected with my own interest in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that the Bar has allowed me to do. In 2004, we had "The CBD in the U.S.A."; Hamdallah Zedan came down [from Montreal] for that and we had panelists, like Mike and Susan, who were on that discussion. I led another in 2008; Ahmed Djoghlaf came down and we had panelists David and Susan and Len Hirsch. Finally, I led one on international policy on ecosystem services, which connects with the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment focus of the CBD.