Politics
Current Developments
There is no doubt that the CBD system of Access and Benefit Sharing has important implications for academic research. It is therefore important for science – and in particular non-commercial, basic academic research – to articulate its needs and make its voice heard as a stakeholder in this process, not least for the benefit of biodiversity itself and also to facilitate the implementation of the CBD's Global Taxonomy Initative.
The conclusion of the CBD in 1992 marked only the beginning of further negotiations on the practical implementation of the CBD's generally formulated obligations regarding ABS. The first achievement of this process was the adoption of the – voluntary – Bonn Guidelines in 2002.
However, the negotiations are still underway. At the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, governments called for the negotiation of an international regime to promote the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. In 2004, in responses to this call for action, the Conference of the Parties mandated its Working Group on ABS to elaborate and negotiate the “international regime on access to genetic resources and benefit sharing”. At its 9th Conference in 2008 in Bonn, the parties adopted the so-called “Nagoya Roadmap”, a detailed schedule of meetings to complete the negotiations before its 10th meeting to be held in 2010 in Nagoya, Japan.
This preparatory work is under way at present in specific ad-hoc expert groups and the CBD’s so-called Ad-hoc open-ended working groups on ABS and Traditional Knowledge. The goal is to create a clear and transparent framework for Access and Benefit Sharing. But consensus on some important issues is not yet reached. The provider countries are lobbying for measures ensuring control over the flow of the resources in research and production processes and compliance of the users with the ABS principles. In turn, groups of user countries are pleading for smooth, transparent and uniform procedures that provide legal security.
The ABS team of the Swiss Academy of Sciences, via its international network and its connection to the Swiss CBD Delegation has taken an important stand in lobbying for a streamlined access for non-commercial (basic) research (link “Our activities”). This request has now provisionally been integrated in the draft text of the International Regime at the last meeting of the CBDs Working Group on Access and Benefit Sharing in April 2009.
June 2009
For more information on the negotiation process download the CBD ABS leaflet.
