Home  Access & Benefit Sharing  The Project  Publications  Events  Links  Contact		Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) The concept of Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) emerged during the negotiations on the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and later in the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising From Their Utilization as a result of various needs and developments:   the need to provide incentives for the conservation of biological diversity – particularly important for countries in the South where most biodiversity is found.   the need to ensure access to genetic resources for producers of food, medicines and other products.   as a reaction to emerging intellectual property regimes on genetic resources, in an effort to ensure that the benefits from commercial development of genetic resources, often through intellectual property rights, are shared with the holders and caretakers of these resources, particularly in developing countries. In October 2010, the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising From Their Utilization (NP) was adopted at the Conference of the Parties (COP-10) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The NP establishes rules on measures to be taken by user countries in the context of access and benefit sharing (ABS). The first meeting in the Intergovernmental Committee on the Nagoya Protocol (ICNP) was held in Montreal June 2011. The second meeting before COP-11 in India 2012 will be held in April 2012. The NP entails progress as to provide legal certainty and a better system for achieving the goals of the CBD. However, still a lot has to be done as the protocol in itself will have limited direct legal effects and needs to be implemented into national legislation to become effective on private parties useing and benefiting from genetic resources. The basic principles of ABS were adopted in the CBD. The Convention recognizes the sovereign rights of states over their natural resources, and to determine access to their genetic resources. It further states that each contracting party (country) shall create conditions to facilitate access to genetic resources (Art. 15). They are to provide access to genetic resources that have originated within their borders or that they have acquired in accordance with the CBD. Access to these resources, where granted, shall be provided on mutually agreed terms, and subject to prior informed consent of the contracting parties providing these resources. Measures are to be undertaken to provide for the fair and equitable sharing of the results of research and development, and the benefits arising from the commercial and other utilization of genetic resources. In addition, access to and transfer of technology shall be facilitated, particularly for developing countries (Art. 16). Contracting parties shall also encourage the equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of traditional knowledge, innovations and practices with their holders, i.e. indigenous peoples and local communities (Art. 8j). These principles were further specified in the voluntary Bonn Guidelines on Access to Genetic Resouces and Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization in 2002. The guidelines specify the roles, functions and tasks involved in enabling authorities to provide access to genetic resources with prior informed consent on mutually agreed terms, and the conditions of such access and the sharing of benefits. They propose elements of a material transfer agreement, as well as a list of monetary and non-monetary benefits. They also provide draft elements for an action plan for capacity building in this regard. Now the difficult path of implementing the two binding sets of obligations regarding ABS continues: for CBD Parties not being members to the NP, they need to make their legislation, policies and administrative measures ABS compliant and for countries subscribing to the principles of the NP, the implementation process is about to begin. At the same time challenges still remain at the international arena both as to get the NP into force and in other fora dealing with ABS.		Related page ABS links Read more about ABS The Convention on Biological Diversity: About ABS
			The ABS Research Project c/o Fridtjof Nansen Institute P.O.Box 326, 1326 Lysaker, Norway. Tel: +47 67111900 / E-mail: post (+@fni.no)