Transparency in the Governance of Access to and Benefit Sharing from Genetic Resources
(2014) Transparency in Global Environmental Governance. Critical Perspectives — ISBN: [9780262027410], p. 157-180, published
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- This chapter explores the evolution of global ABS governance under the CBD from the perspective of transparency, taking into account the 2010 Nagoya Protocol. In line with the overall framework of this book, we discuss, first, the emergence and framing of transparency in this area of governance. We argue that transparency, which was not initially envisioned as a policy solution, has increasingly moved to center stage in the debate on ABS governance under the CBD,which especially builds on bilateral contracts between providers and users. This move results, not least, from a growing marketization of GR and increasing awareness (through, for example, NGO campaigns) of the lack of information about GR uses. Subsequently, we outline the main elements and instruments of the transparency infrastructure elaborated,and given legal force, in the Nagoya Protocol, including the bilateral, contract-based approach to ABS governance therein. We then discuss the(in)effectiveness of governance by disclosure thus far, as well as prospects for improvement, especially through the Nagoya Protocol. The overall CBD system has performed weakly since the 1990s. Even after negotiation of the Nagoya Protocol, there remains a lasting imbalance between relatively advanced standards and practices for transparency for access and more problematic and imperfect standards for transparency for benefit sharing, which disadvantages least-developed countries and results in calls for capacity-building efforts. The conclusions summarize the results of the analysis.
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Orsini, A., Oberthür, S., & Pozarowska, J. (2014). Transparency in the Governance of Access to and Benefit Sharing from Genetic Resources. In Aarti Gupta et Michael Mason (ed.), Transparency in Global Environmental Governance. Critical Perspectives (p. p. 157-180). MIT Press.