Abstract:

Intended as a contribution to the ongoing negotiations of an international regime on access and benefit sharing (ABS) under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), this report clarifies the main interfaces with other international agreements and processes relevant for ABS, with a view to the challenges of ensuring mutual supportiveness. It provides information of importance for identifying the scope of an international ABS regime, and offers contributions to the discussion of the usefulness and possible design of a sectoral approach to ABS within the framework of an international regime. Covered in the report are international agreements and processes pertaining to genetic resources for food and agriculture; marine areas within and beyond national jurisdiction; pathogens; traditional knowledge related to genetic resources; and intellectual property rights. For each section, the interface with ABS is identified, implications of this interface for ABS are highlighted, and options for dealing with these implications derived. The report ends with a discussion of the usefulness and possible design of a sectoral approach to ABS, concluding that there are good arguments for a broad and inclusive international regime on ABS, but that its usefulness will depend on its ability to meet the specific requirements of the various sub-categories of genetic resources.