Nine ABS products developed under ABS Framework in 2025.

Bhutan Launched Ten (10) new Bioprospecting Products developed under the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Framework.

The present report follows Article 16(2) of the EU ABS Regulation, which requires the Commission to submit to the European Parliament and the Council a report on the application of the Regulation, including a first assessment of its effectiveness, not later than one year after the time-limit for submission of the national reports. The report is based on information from the national reports submitted by all 28 Member States 7 to the Commission, as well as other information available.

A Commentary on the Limitations of the European Union Regulation on Access and Benefit Sharing.

Europe’s flower industry is worth billions – but the countries that gave it life get almost nothing in return. Genetic resources from the Global South fuel profits in Europe, while a flawed UN system meant to ensure fair sharing isn’t delivering.

Abstract The wide geographic distribution of microorganisms, combined with their vast taxonomic and functional diversity, make them indispensable reservoirs of genetic variation that sustain ecosystem resilience and fuel biotechnological innovation. However, to use this diversity, microbiologists must navigate a complex legal and regulatory landscape governed by multiple United Nations treaties and their respective access and benefit-sharing frameworks as well as regulatory frameworks specific to particular ecosystems, biosecurity, pathogens, and intellectual property.

The African BioGenome Project (AfricaBP), an ambitious Pan-African initiative, in alignment with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), is advancing large-scale genomic and bioinformatics efforts across the African continent. Through this initiative, AfricaBP is pioneering innovative strategies to mitigate biodiversity loss while ensuring equitable sharing of benefits derived from genetic resources.

In 2016, negotiations of the Convention on Biological Diversity on access and benefit-sharing policies were shaken up by the emergence of digital sequence information (DSI) as policy issue. Open access to DSI on genetic resources in genetic databases is standard practice in data-driven biological research, but such access was argued to bypass access and benefit-sharing policies of the Convention.

This chapter presents an insight into current negotiations of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) regarding the digitalization of genetic resources, from an ethics of technology perspective. The chapter gives an overview of the transition towards data-centric biological research and open science, and its implications for Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) policies, which consist of mechanisms that ensure fair access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable benefit-sharing from their utilization in research and development.

APGBIS is an Arabian Plant Gene Bank Information System developed and powered by Arab Organization For Agriculture Development (AOAD). The application aims at laying down a comprehensive action plan for the management of plant genetic resources gene banks in the Arab states as well as develop an information system and database to function as an early warning.

Le Gouvernement du Cameroun s’est engagé à valoriser ses ressources génétiques (RG) et connaissances traditionnelles associées (CTa) dans une logique de développement durable, conforme à la Stratégie Nationale de Développement 2020-2030 et aux exigences de la Convention sur la diversité biologique, notamment le Protocole de Nagoya sur l’accès et le partage équitable des avantages (APA). Le Ministère de l’Environnement, de la Protection de la Nature et du Développement Durable (MINEPDED), en tant qu’Autorité Nationale Compétente, coordonne l’inventaire, la conservation et la valorisation des RG et CTa.

Presentation of Alex Reep's Fulbright research in Colombia, August 2023 - June 2024 Summary: COP16 is coming to Cali this October. One of three "priority areas for action" is Access and Benefit Sharing for the use of genetic resources — what does that mean and how does it affect people in Colombia? Fulbright scholar and Alliance visiting researcher, Alex Reep, traveled around various departments to ask Indigenous people and local community members what they consider to be “fair and equitable” benefit sharing for the use of digital sequence information (DSI) derived from plants in their territories.

Biodiversity is the foundation for BioTrade value chains. Access and benefit-sharing (ABS) helps to ensure that these value chains contribute to conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and ultimately trigger socio-economic development.

This technical report examines potential linkages between the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement) and several biodiversity-related multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) administered by UNEP. Adopted in June 2023, the BBNJ Agreement adds a major new dimension to global ocean governance by addressing longstanding gaps in the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

In this article, we assess why this ‘hybrid system’ fails to fulfil the legal certainty criterion in paragraph 9 of Decision 15/9, and how CBD Parties can address the resulting flaws that undermine the Cali Fund’s functionality. The paper has eight further sections: In section 2 we first explore what characterises ‘bilateral’, ‘multilateral’ and ‘hybrid’ ABS systems.

A national policy draft, a preliminary draft law and an institutional development plan A communication strategy and a awareness-raising and capacity-building program Community Biocultural Protocols and Community Registers of Genetic Resources A Database An online tool A strategy for integrating gender ABS permits.

PROJECT SUMMARY 1. Despite the high value of biological resources to Madagascar’s rapidly growing human population, the threat of biodiversity loss remains a concern.

ABS implementation in Madagascar will be followed by impacts : Sustainable and regulated valuation of genetic resources; Protection and valorization of rights to traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources Fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources Support to national socio-economic development through the improvement of living conditions, especially for local communities Reinvestment of benefits towards biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.

Through the ABS-MADA Project within the Directorate in charge of Biodiversity, at the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MEDD) in Madagascar, in partnership with UN-Environment and with funding from GEF7, awareness-raising and capacity-building actions were initially carried out in two pilot sites (Antavolobe - Ampangalatsary / Rural Commune of Andasibe / District of Moramanga / Alaotra Mangoro Region and Sahandrazana / Rural Commune of Ranomafana / District of Ifanadiana / Vatovavy Region), then subsequently, in more areas across the country (Analamanga, Amoron’i Mania, Analanjirofo, Alaotra Mangoro, Vatovavy and Haute Matsiatra Regions).

The UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), in collaboration with the CBD Secretariat, has prepared this scoping study as a contribution towards discussions on the multilateral mechanism. A key focus of this scoping study is to highlight forward-looking aspects that may affect the potential use of DSI and, thereby, the further development and future effective functioning of the multilateral mechanism.

The scope of access and benefit-sharing (ABS) legislation is subject to much variation and ambiguity across the world. Early legal documents were initially intended to address animal and plant materials, but scientific advances have extended the meaning to encompass anything containing units of biological heredity, including pathogens and microbes.

This paper summarizes the business position for the Second Meeting of the Working Group on Digital Sequence Information in August 2024.

INTRODUCTION 1.

Member states of the World Health Organisation are negotiating a new international agreement on pandemic preparedness and updates to the International Health Regulations. One of the most contentious issues in negotiations on the Pandemic Accord is access to pandemic materials and information; and benefit-sharing.

The members of the ad hoc technical expert group (AHTEG) on indicators for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework are providing a series of webinars to describe and discuss the outcomes of the AHTEG leading to and following the twenty-sixth meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice. As part of this series, a webinar presenting results of the ABS study and monitoring indicators C.