The never ending story: access to genetic resources, sharing of benefits and technology transfer

policies For almost 20 years most signatories of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have unsuccessfully attempted to implement the related provisions on access to genetic resources and sharing of benefits (ABS). Such provisions attempt to regulate bioprospecting i.e. “...the process of looking for potentially valuable genetic material and biochemical compounds in nature... ” (Zedan, 2005: 189) an activity mainly conducted by firms from developed countries in biodiversity-rich developing nations. According to the CBD biodiversity rich countries are committed to grant access to their genetic resources to firms on a contractual basis, in exchange of financial resources, knowledge and technology to support conservation. The difficulties for implementation of the ABS provisions of the CBD have been attributed to several factors, such as the lack of clarity in the terms of the Convention (Correa,1996) and the technical complexity of the matter to regulate (Flores, 2004). The author of this work challenges those views and considers the existence of a major policy failure associated to the S&T model underlying ABS provisions. Moreover she affirms the Nagoya Protocol, agreed in 2010, will not have an important persuasive effect for countries to finally implement ABS rules. 1