The Convention on Biological Diversity

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is binding on signatory governments and their agencies, but not on private individuals unless and until there is applicable national legislation. As of April 2009, there are 191 parties to the CBD Andorra, the Holy See, Iraq, Somalia and the USA are not parties.31 

The CBD is made up of 42 Articles, of which Articles 20-42 are concerned with financial resources and mechanisms and issues related to arbitration and administrative matters. These do not directly impact the activities of natural product scientists, although several of the Articles do have an influence on the development of access and benefit-sharing agreements. It is Articles 1-19 that have direct relevance to the work of natural product scientists and a detailed discussion is available.32 

Those objectives could be achieved and the sharing of benefits could occur in three main ways  

It was the notion that developing countries were now assured of compensation from bioprospecting that led to their strong support for the CBD. 

The issue of access to genetic resources is presented in Article 15. Article 15.1 describes how each state/government has sovereign rights over the natural resources and that national governments have the authority to determine access. The creation of conditions to facilitate access to genetic resources for environmentally sound uses is indicated in Article 15.2 with the admonition not to impose restrictions that run counter to the objectives of the Convention . 

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Although the idea of precaution in environmental matters has been around since the 1970s, the term was first introduced under Principle 15 in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), 1992 [4] ... 

Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Report Of The Second... 

Meeting Of The Conference Of The Parties To The Convention On Biological Diversity. Nairobi, Kenya UNEP. Available at http //www.Biodiv.Org/Doc/Meetings/Cop/Cop-02/Official/Cop-02-19-En.Doc [Accessed January 12, 2006]. 

Jarvis, D.I. Zoes, V. Nares D. and T. Hodgkin (2004) On-farm management of crop genetic diversity and the convention on biological diversity programme of work on agricultural biodiversity.- Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter 138, 5-17. 

The Convention on Biological Diversity and its Impact on Natural Product Research... 

Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Handbook of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Earthscan, London, 2001. 

See letter dated 17 April 2008 from the Secretary-General of UPOV to the Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, www.upov.int/en/about/pdf/upov cbd 17 04 2008.pdf, accessed 23 April 2009. 

K. Ten Kate and A. Wells, Benefit-Sharing Case Study. The access and benefitsharing policies of the United States National Cancer Institute a comparative account of the discovery and development of the drugs Calanolide and Topotecan. Submission to the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 1998. 

Glowka, L. A. F Burhenne-Guilmin, F. and Synge, H. Guide to the Convention on Biological Diversity World Conservation Union, 1994. 

The Convention on Biological Diversity with three main goals ... 

A. Drews, The requirements in the convention on Biological Diversity to Using Genetic Resources, International Conference Business cfe Biodiversity , Bonn, 2008. 

Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2002) Bonn Guidelines on Access to Genetic Resources and Fair and Equitable Sharing of the Benefits Arising out of their Utilization. Montreal (www.cbd.int/doc/publi-cations/cbd-bonn-gdls-en.pdf)... 

Cheyne, P. (2004) Access and Benefit-Sharing Agreements bridging the gap between scientific partnerships and the Convention on Biological Diversity. In Seed Conservation Turning Science into Practice (Smith, R.D. et al., eds ). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew... 

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