Chapter 17 - Nagoya Protocol and access to genetic resources

Abstract

During the second half of the 20th-century awareness about environmental losses developed and became a societal issue of concern. That is why, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 1992, the international community took the important decision to preserve biodiversity through a virtuous circle: the sustainable use of biodiversity (genetic resources) and traditional knowledge will generate benefits that will then be used for their preservation. Then the Nagoya Protocol, adopted in 2010, specified the practical implementation of the access and benefit-sharing mechanism, which is the responsibility of each source country. The scope of application was then clarified and extended: research on the genetic but also biochemical content of plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms. The users of these resources, whether scholar or industrial, must comply with these regulations, which are applied at the national, supranational, and sometimes subnational levels. Practical advice is provided on how to take the necessary steps to ensure legal security in a rapidly evolving legal environment that differs greatly from one source country to another.