The Legal Regulation of Access and Benefit-Sharing with Regard to Human Genetic Resources in South Africa

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melodie Slabbert
2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-45
Author(s):  
STELLINA JOLLY

The debate over control and ownership of natural and bio genetic resources has a chequered history in International environmental law. Historically genetic resources were considered and acknowledged as part of common heritage of mankind. But with the development of technologies and the heightened north south divide over the issue of sovereign right over natural resources the developing nations became extremely concerned with the exploitation of biological and Genetic resources. Access to benefit sharing (ABS) was considered as an answer to balance the interests of developed and developing nations and to conserve and protect bio diversity. Adopted on October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan by the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of 1992, the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (NP) has come into force after its 50th ratification on 2013. Nagoya protocol details on procedure for access and benefit sharing, disclosure mechanism, principles of transparency and democracy. The paper analyses the protection of access and benefit sharing envisaged under Nagoya protocol and its possible role in promoting sustainable development in the develoing nations. 


Database ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrikje Seifert ◽  
Marc Weber ◽  
Frank Oliver Glöckner ◽  
Ivaylo Kostadinov

Abstract The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing is a transparent legal framework, which governs the access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilization. Complying with the Nagoya regulations ensures legal use and re-use of data from genetic resources. Providing detailed provenance information and clear re-usage conditions plays a key role in ensuring the re-usability of research data according to the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable) Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Even with the framework provided by the ABS (access and benefit sharing) Clearing House and the support of the National Focal Points, establishing a direct link between the research data from genetic resources and the relevant Nagoya information remains a challenge. This is particularly true for re-using publicly available data. The Nagoya Lookup Service was developed for stakeholders in biological sciences with the aim at facilitating the legal and FAIR data management, specifically for data publication and re-use. The service provides up-to-date information on the Nagoya party status for a geolocation provided by GPS coordinates, directing the user to the relevant local authorities for further information. It integrates open data from the ABS Clearing House, Marine Regions, GeoNames and Wikidata. The service is accessible through a REST API and a user-friendly web form. Stakeholders include data librarians, data brokers, scientists and data archivists who may use this service before, during and after data acquisition or publication to check whether legal documents need to be prepared, considered or verified. The service allows researchers to estimate whether genetic data they plan to produce or re-use might fall under Nagoya regulations or not, within the limits of the technology and without constituting legal advice. It is implemented using portable Docker containers and can easily be deployed locally or on a cloud infrastructure. The source code for building the service is available under an open-source license on GitHub, with a functional image on Docker Hub and can be used by anyone free of charge.


Resources ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Wana W. Chinsembu ◽  
Kazhila C. Chinsembu

Many countries in Africa provide ethnobiological resources (more especially ethnomedicinal plants), which are converted by companies and users from developed countries into biopharmaceutical products without any monetary benefits to the countries of origin. To mitigate the lack of benefits, African countries are beginning to enact access and benefit-sharing (ABS) legislation, though their wheels turn very slowly. Since many African ABS laws have not been appraised for their feasibility, this paper presents a contextual analysis of Namibia’s new ABS law: The Access to Biological and Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge Act No. 2 of 27 June 2017. Even if several international conventions on ABS and local institutional structures guided the evolution of the 2017 Act, the main drivers for the enactment of the ABS legislation in Namibia are: Inequitable sharing of monetary benefits from the green economy, putative, but unproven cases of biopiracy, and political power contestations over ethnobiological resources. A critical analysis of important challenges faced by Namibia’s new ABS law include: Lack of adequate participatory consultations and technical capacity at the local level, discount of the non-commodity cultural value of TK, ambiguous and narrow definition of the term ‘community’, lack of a clause on confidentiality, and assertions that the new ABS law negatively impacts research in Namibian universities and botanic gardens. In contrast to South Africa’s ABS law, Namibia’s law is more onerous because it does not differentiate between commercial and non-commercial research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Jonghyun Lee ◽  
Minho An ◽  
Soohyo Lee ◽  
Young-Hyo Chang

2010 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 148-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bikash Poudel ◽  
Pitamber Shrestha ◽  
Bir Bahadur Tamang ◽  
Abiskar Subedi

It is very evident that there is lack of well accepted and verified mechanisms as well as institutional set up for the realization of farmers' rights, including the effective implementation of International Regime on Access to and Benefit Sharing (IRABS). Community Biodiversity Management (CBM) embed good practices, proven to be effective in in-situ conservation of biodiversity through conservation through use, they also provide a base for a range of practices which serve the basis for IRABS to be affable and affordable to local communities. CBM encompasses the good practices serving documentation, conservation, facilitating exchange, providing access to genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge. Moreover, CBM also provide institutional structure and mechanism to share the benefits accruing from commercial use of the genetic resources, directly and indirectly.Key words: Genetic resources; Associated traditional knowledge; Access and benefit sharing; farmers’ rights; Community biodiversity managementThe Journal of AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENT Vol. 11, 2010Page: 148-157Uploaded date: 16 September, 2010


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document