Project overview

At the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002, Heads of State called for action to negotiate, within the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity, an international regime to promote and safeguard the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. 

In response to this call for action, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, at its seventh meeting, in decision VII/19D, mandated a subsidiary body - the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing - to negotiate an international regime on access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing. In accordance with decision VIII/4 of the Conference of the Parties, the Working Group is to finalize the elaboration and negotiation of the international regime by 2010. Two meetings of the Working Group will be held prior to COP 9 in May 2008.

In addition, the Conference of the Parties, in decision VII/19E, when considering the issue of measures to support compliance with prior informed consent and mutually agreed terms in Contracting Parties with users under their jurisdiction, under paragraph 10(d), requested the Executive Secretary to gather information and carry out further analysis on “Access and benefit-sharing arrangements existing in specific sectors”. 


Aims and Objectives

Against this background, the main purpose of this study is to explore and gather information on existing ABS agreements and practices in different sectors of industry. Despite a flurry of interest in these arrangements in the 1990s, there have been surprisingly few studies to track their evolution, and current understanding with regard to their implementation and status is somewhat unknown. Addressing this gap is essential to ensure that ongoing negotiations to develop an international regime are informed by best practice and lessons learnt from implementation.

A wide range of sectors undertake research and develop commercial products from genetic resources. They include the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, seed, crop protection, horticulture, cosmetic and personal care, fragrance and flavor, botanicals, and food and beverage industries. Each sector is part of a unique market, undertakes research and development in distinct ways, and uses genetic resources and demands access to these resources very differently. They also enter into partnerships with providers of genetic resources in distinct ways, have specific sets of stakeholders, negotiate prior informed consent in diverse ways, and have different approaches through which they reach mutually agreed terms with regard to benefit-sharing and intellectual property. Agreements within and across sectors also vary considerably with regard to the legal remedies they use for compliance and enforcement.
                                                                                                    
The scope of this study will be primarily focused on genetic resources – genetic material of actual or potential value - as part of the access and benefit-sharing component of the Convention on Biological Diversity. However, a number of the sectors that make use of genetic resources may also use biological resources – a broader category that includes genetic resources, but also organisms or parts thereof, populations, or any other biotic component of ecosystems with actual or potential use or value for humanity. Increasingly, there is an overlap in the contractual agreements around use of genetic and biological resources, and different understandings as to the application of access and benefit sharing under these circumstances. It is also often difficult to distinguish between these categories of resources, and a number of national ABS laws go beyond the CBD to address, for example, both biological and genetic resources (eg The Philipines EO, the South African Biodiversity Act 10 of 2004) or biochemical and genetic elements (eg Costa Rica Law 7788). Because of these divergent interpretations and practices, the study will also examine case studies that illustrate some of these definitional complexities and further our understanding of current practice.