Protect your work using IPR protection and enjoy the benefits of ownership over your creativity. Register for IPR protection through a hassle-free process.
The alchemy of nature speaks to us – if we only allow so to let it reveal its endless mysteries, intricate patterns and a life-full of enigmatic expressions ! As far as the evolutionary history is concerned, Homo sapiens have always dedicated endless hours trying to perceive things and facts from a sea of offerings nature provides to all. And only as of recent times, we have started to value and understand the Brobdingnagian proportion of things nature offers to us. An attempt made in the same direction is that of the convention for access to genetic resources and benefit sharing provisions. banks, seed banks and microbial culture collections (ex situ).
“… and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?” – Vincent Willem van Gogh
Importance of Genetic Resources
Access and benefit-sharing (ABS)
A very prominent example in understanding the ABS provisions is the case of Kani tribe model. In 1987, during a scientific exploration project in Kerala, TBGRI scientists understood the secret to the stamina of the Kani tribals while walking in the forest over long distances. These tribals regularly ate the ‘Arogyapacha’ while walking. Taking inspiration from the same, a drug was developed named ‘Jeevani’ by Arya Vaiday Shala and TBGRI using the ‘Arogyapacha’. An estimated 50% of the royalty was shared with Kani tribals therafter by forming a Charitable Trust for the same. Today 70% of Kanis are members of the Trust and receiving the benefits in some form. The process started prior to CBD due to conscious of the scientists working with the tribe.
On a broad note, Access and benefit-sharing (ABS) refers to the way in which genetic resources may be accessed, and how the benefits that result from their use are shared between the people or countries using the resources (users) and the people or countries that provide them (providers).
Access and benefit-sharing is based on prior informed consent (PIC) being granted by a provider to a user and negotiations between both parties to develop mutually agreed terms (MAT) to ensure the fair and equitable sharing of genetic resources and associated benefits. The Prior informed consent (PIC) is the permission given by the competent national authority of a provider country to a user prior to accessing genetic resources, in line with an appropriate national legal and institutional framework. Another important aspect is the Mutually agreed terms (MAT). MAT is an agreement reached between the providers of genetic resources and users on the conditions of access and use of the resources, and the benefits to be shared between both parties. Both the PIC and MAT are required under Article 15 of the CBD, which was adopted in 1992 and provides a global set of principles for access to genetic resources, as well as the fair and equitable distribution of the benefits that result from their use.
Usually, providers of genetic resources are governments or civil society bodies, which can include private land owners and communities within a country, who are entitled to provide access to genetic resources and share the benefits resulting from their use. The access and benefit-sharing provisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are designed to ensure that the physical access to genetic resources is facilitated and that the benefits obtained from their use are shared equitably with the providers. In some cases this also includes valuable traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources that comes from ILCs. The benefits to be shared can be monetary, such as sharing royalties when the resources are used to create a commercial product, or non-monetary, such as the development of research skills and knowledge. It is vital that both users and providers understand and respect institutional frameworks such as those outlined by the CBD and in the Bonn Guidelines. These help governments to establish their own national frameworks which ensure that access and benefit-sharing happens in a fair and equitable way.
A special instrument has also been developed for access to the crop genetic resources, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. This treaty establishes a multi-lateral access and benefit sharing (ABS) system for a common pool of 64 most important food crops and forage crops that are held in ex-situ collections worldwide.