Traditional resource rights

This book provides a systematic analysis of the requirements of access law, both the CBD requirements and the basic requirements of enforceable legislation. Often key legal issues that have a significant impact on enforceability of ABS agreements are not addressed in national legislation, therefore, this book addresses these issues with the aim to recognize and understand the nature of the legal impediments that must be addressed for the drafting of functional ABS legislation.

Current discussions over the “Certificate of Origin, Source and Legal Provenance” include the legal and practical implications associated with tracking the flow of genetic resources. Knowing what is where, how it got there, and whether conditions and restrictions were complied with, is a critical aspect if an ABS regime is to be effective in its implementation.

Fewer than 11% of CBD Parties have adopted substantive ABS law, and nearly all of these are developing countries, focusing almost entirely on the ‘access’ side of the equation. Most of the CBD’s specific ABS obligations, however, relate to the other side of the equation – benefit sharing. This book considers the full range of ABS obligations, and how existing tools in user countries’ national law can be used to achieve the CBD’s third objective.

This book provides a systematic analysis of the requirements of access law, both the CBD requirements and the basic requirements of enforceable legislation. Often key legal issues that have a significant impact on enforceability of ABS agreements are not addressed in national legislation, therefore, this book addresses these issues with the aim to recognize and understand the nature of the legal impediments that must be addressed for the drafting of functional ABS legislation.

This publication contains four papers on different legal issues of interest to developing countries. The papers were researched and written by four Carl Duisberg Gesellscaft (CDG) Fellows who came to Germany from Bangladesh, Venezuela, Nigeria and China to study under the host leadership of the IUCN Environmental Law Centre.

Today, there is increasing recognition that traditional and indigenous knowledge systems can provide alternative strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, a realisation that is strongly reflected in the Convention on biological diversity. However, there is a fear that this interest in traditional knowledge systems will lead to the basic human, cultural and scientific rights of indigenous people being sidelined, something the CBD fails to address adequately.