Abstract:

The adoption of Nagoya Protocol (the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity) in the 10^th Conference of Parties (COP10) (Nagoya, Japan, October 2010), is a key step to fully realize the three objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), especially the third objective of fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources. To negotiate the international regime for access and benefit-sharing (ABS)of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge (TK) is a main mandate of CBD in the past 10 years, and for implementation of the mandate, the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on ABS was established in 2000. This working group convened altogether nine meetings during 2001 to 2010, of which the ninth meeting extended three resumed meetings till the COP10 because the negotiation is very difficult. The main elements of Nagoya Protocol are objective; scope; access to genetic resources and associated TK (subject to prior informed consent, PIC); fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and associated TK based on mutually agreed terms (MAT); measures to ensure compliance including disclosure of source and origin of genetic resources, certification of genetic resources with compliance, and check points for monitoring utilization of genetic resources; capacity buildings; etc. The core issue during the negotiation is whether derivative can be included in definition of genetic resources and another is how to monitor utilization of genetic resources. Duo to the strong argument, in the Protocol, the requirement of disclosure was not adopted, the check points were also not strongly required for monitoring, and in addition, the version is not very clear for the benefit-sharing of the genetic resources collected in the western gene banks accessed in the past time. As China is one of the mega-biodiversity countries and an important provider of genetic resources in the world, the adoption and implementation of Nagoya Protocol will be significant for China to enhance biodiversity conservation and to promote benefit-sharing with users. In particular China need to enhance legislation on ABS in national level.

Key words: Nagoya Protocol, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), access and benefit-sharing (ABS), genetic resources, traditional knowledge (TK), potential impacts