:: Access to Genetic Resources and the Sharing of Benefits: Private Rights or Shared Use for Biodiversity Conservation?

This paper provides an overview of the legal mechanisms and policy approaches regarding access and benefit sharing (ABS) and evaluates their impact on the other two objectives of the CBD, i.e. the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. It also contrasts the CBD’s ABS regime against the multilateral system of plant genetic resources estab-lished by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) which was negotiated in the realm of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).