In time for the Sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 16) taking place from the 21st of October to the 1st of November 2024 in Cali, Colombia, BlueRemediomics project partners from the University of Aberdeen in collaboration with ABS International, have published a policy brief on “Disclosing and Sharing Genetic Resources: Recommendations based on the WIPO Treaty and BBNJ Agreement”.
The conference, which will have a big focus on access to genetic resources, is among other tasks due to finalise the mechanism on the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of digital sequence information on genetic resources.
In light of this development, the new policy brief summarises the contexts of international negotiation developments regarding genetic resources and the ocean, identifies key outcomes, and makes suggestions to EU and state policy makers responsible for implementing obligations under the WIPO & BBNJ agreements, aiming to inform future choices regarding access and benefit sharing (ABS), intellectual property (IP), Digital Sequence Information (DSI) and their intersections.
The focus of the policy brief is on developments at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) regarding the disclosure of the origin of genetic resources on which patent applications are based (WIPO Treaty), and on the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement).
The policy brief was developed in the framework of EU-funded projects BlueRemediomics and MARBLES.
Read the policy brief below!