Access and Benefit Sharing

ABS stands for Access and Benefit Sharing. Access means access to genetic resources; benefit sharing stands for an equitable sharing of the benefits arising from their use.

The International Treaty, in force since 2004, regulates ABS for the crop sector in a multilateral system. It is excluded from the scope of the Nagoya Protocol as a special agreement.

The Nagoya Protocol is a binding international agreement that provides the framework for national regulations governing access to genetic resources and the equitable sharing of benefits arising from their use.

What must a user of genetic resources from agriculture and food in Germany observe in order to comply with the law regarding ABS?

Ex-situ collections can be involved in the implementation of ABS regulations in different ways and at different levels. These are summarised here.

The UN Biodiversity Summit 2024 adopted key modalities for benefit-sharing for the utilisation of digital sequence information on genetic resources. Companies benefiting from DSI should contribute to a new fund which is aimed to supoort biodiverstiy conservation in the global south.

Until the CBD came into force (1993), biological resources were widely regarded as the common heritage of humanity and were considered freely accessible to all. Then the CBD reaffirmed the sovereign right of states over their biological resources.