Digital Sequence Information (DSI)
A Fair Solution for Access and Sharing of Benefits of Digital Sequence Information? Decision for the CBD COP in November 2024
By Viviana Munoz Tellez
A decision is expected from the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) by 1 November 2024 on a solution to the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of digital sequence information (DSI) on genetic resources. There are different forms of non-monetary and monetary benefits from the use of DSI that are being considered. This paper argues that for monetary benefit sharing, the focus should be on when DSI is used commercially, as part of products or services. Calculations should be based on revenue that includes sales and intellectual property licencing.
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Decision 15/9 and the Nagoya Protocol: Who should get what in the Multilateral Benefit-Sharing Mechanism?
By Joseph Henry Vogel, Natasha C. Jiménez-Revelles, Xavier A. Maldonado-Ramírez de Arellano
Article 10 of the Nagoya Protocol (NP), “Global Multilateral Benefit-Sharing Mechanism” (GMBSM), asks Parties to consider the distribution of benefits derived from the utilization of genetic resources in transboundary situations. A literature exists which applies the economics of information to genetic resources, when interpreted as “natural information”. The policy implication would incentivize reduction in the drivers of mass extinction, through economic rents in royalty obligations. Fifteen cases become thought experiments on how to share royalty income. A sixteenth case addresses the TP53 gene in elephants, which may revolutionize oncology. In parallel to Article 10 of the NP is Decision 15/9 of the fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. That Decision establishes a “multilateral benefit-sharing mechanism from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources”. Redundancy with the GMBSM is only apparent. The Decision omits rents and thus renders its mechanism inefficient, unfair and inequitable.
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The Right to Seeds in Africa
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas and the Right to Seeds in Africa
Geneva Academy Briefing No. 22
By Karine Peschard, Christophe Golay and Lulbahri Araya
Pursuant to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), the African Union and African states should ensure that their regional & national laws & policies, as well as international bodies to which they are party, lead to effective protection of peasant rights, including their right to seeds.
The Geneva Academy acknowledges the support of the South Centre for the production of this publication.
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Movement Forward on ABS for the Convention on Biological Diversity: Bounded Openness Over Natural Information
by Joseph Henry Vogel, Manuel Ruiz Muller, Klaus Angerer, and Christopher May
“Access to genetic resources” and “fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising [from their] utilization” is the third objective of the 1992 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The expression is included in the full title of the 2010 Nagoya Protocol (NP). Neither agreement defined “material” in the phrase “genetic material” which resulted in misinterpretation that the object of access for R&D is tangible. Unfairness ensues: competition among provider Parties leads to the elimination of economic rents, which is desirable for tangibles but undesirable for intangibles. Once interpreted as natural information, the economics of information justifies a Global Multilateral Benefit-Sharing Mechanism (GMBSM) (Article 10 NP) which collects and distributes rents on value added to genetic resources. “Bounded openness over natural information” is the modality proposed for the GMBSM. The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Secretariat of the CBD recognized the argument in the 2021 Note “Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources”.
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SOUTH CENTRE STATEMENT FOR CBD SBSTTA AGENDA ITEM ON BIODIVERSITY AND HEALTH
The draft Global Action Plan on Biodiversity and Health should support mainstreaming biodiversity and health linkages in national policies, strategies, programmes and accounts.
The South Centre suggests the following amendments to the draft Action Plan on Biodiversity and Health to ensure consistency with the objectives of the Convention and the Nagoya Protocol with regard to fair and equitable benefit-sharing…
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Governing Seed for Food Production: The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
By Nina Isabella Moeller
Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) are part of the foundation of agriculture and of central importance to food sovereignty. These gain an increasingly pivotal role in the context of climate crises, which are threatening predictable crop production, and the erosion of agricultural biodiversity. The main instrument for the governance of PGRFA is the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Strengthening the Treaty is crucial. The Treaty establishes a binding international framework for the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from their use. Since 2013, negotiations have been underway to enhance the functioning of the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing. Current informal consultations may pave the way for constructive negotiations at the next Governing Body meeting in May 2022.
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Statement by the South Centre to the Third meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group on the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)
The South Centre, the intergovernmental think tank of developing countries based in Geneva, is pleased to participate in the third meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group on the Post 2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). There is a lot of work to be done until COP-15. The new draft of the GBF improves on the previous version, yet several areas require significant improvements.
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South Centre Submission to the 18th Session of the CGRFA
The South Centre presents its compliments to the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA) and is pleased to send to the Commission the following information on its programmes and activities relevant to the prioritized themes for the 18th session of the CGRFA.
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South Centre Statement to the formal meeting of SBSTTA 24
Agenda Item 3: Post 2020 GBF
Subsidiary bodies of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are formally meeting to advance the Post 2020 Biodiversity Framework. A dedicated funding mechanism for the CBD and mechanism for technology transfer and capacity building should be part of the framework. Read the SC statement.
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Proposals to Advance the Negotiations of the Post 2020 Biodiversity Framework
By Dr. Viviana Muñoz Tellez
Informal consultations are ongoing in virtual format towards the adoption of a Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework by the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The Fifteenth meeting of the CBD-COP is scheduled to be held on 11–24 October 2021, in Kunming, China. For negotiations to succeed, the Framework must be ambitious, balanced and achievable, building on past commitments. All three pillars of the CBD must be equally advanced. The Rio principles in particular on common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR), must be clearly reflected. This policy brief advances proposals towards advancing negotiations on the current zero-draft of the Framework towards realizing the 2050 global vision of living in harmony with nature.
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Digital Sequence Information (DSI) and national measures: approaches and perspectives
By Jorge Cabrera Medaglia
Digital sequence information (DSI, or genetic sequence data) is an emerging aspect of synthetic biology which involves certain functional genetic sequences being shared by different means. The genetic sequences from plants, animals or micro-organisms could be used to support conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, to develop and commercialize new products and processes, or for other purposes. The regulation of the use of DSI for both commercial and non-commercial entities may have huge implications for the access and benefit-sharing (ABS) regimen established in the international instruments, ongoing processes and regional and national legislation that implement these conventions. International guidance is needed to promote a coordinated approach to secure fair and equitable sharing of benefits while avoiding a negative impact on the non-commercial benefits arising from the genetic data.
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