Why and How Should the Commonwealth of Nations Engage in the Access and Benefit-sharing Issue

The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilisation (hereafter Nagoya Protocol), adopted in 2010 during the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, entered into force in October 2014. The idea behind the protocol is that 10 biodiversity, and more precisely the genetic resources of plants and animals, is useful for a number of commercial applications, including pharmaceutical, cosmetic and agricultural. As a result, the protocol proposes a legal basis asking the users of genetic resources to share part of their commercial profits with the providers of these resources. Sometimes, users also take inspiration from traditional knowledge to develop their com- 15 mercial applications. The protocol therefore applies to genetic resources and to the associated traditional knowledge