Study was elaborated within the UNEP/GEF Project Assessment of Capacity-building Needs: Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit-sharing, Conservation and Sustainable

Genetic resources have represented and still represent even in our modern society important sources for human existence and survival, due to their actual and potential values. This is why they are discussed during the highest international fora and dealt in important international treaties. Two of them – namely Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) established the sovereign right of states over genetic resources on their territory. This important fact, changing previous principal of common heritage of whole mankind over genetic resources, initiated series of discussions and international negotiations. Within the Convention on Biological Diversity a special Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group was established in 2000 with the mandate to develop guidelines and other approaches regulating access to genetic resources and their benefit sharing. The Bonn Guidelines on Access to Genetic Resources and Fair and Equitable Sharing of the Benefit Arising from their Utilization, adopted officially in 2002, represent the first outcomes of the Group, in the form of a not legally binding instrument. The World Summit on Sustainable Development initiated the call for action to negotiate an internationa