IUCN Explanatory Guide to the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing

IUCN Environmental Law Centre, Bonn, Germany

IUCN Global Policy Unit, Gland, Switzerland

Electronic Review

6 February – 5 March 2012

With the financial support of:
German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit) / Co-funding for translation provided by:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (DANIDA)

Structure and purpose of the Explanatory Guide

The IUCN Explanatory Guide to the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing is part of the IUCN Environmental Law Programme (ELP) Guide series.

The main goal of this Explanatory Guide is to facilitate the understanding of the legal obligations of the Parties under the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) by providing neutral expert analysis of the text of the agreement. It focuses primarily on providing an explanation of the Protocol’s content and relationship with other key instruments, policy documents and action plans. The target audience of this Guide is broad, including lawyers as well as non-lawyers, policy-makers as well as the private sector and civil society in general. It therefore attempts to investigate and explain the origin and meaning of the provisions of the Protocol in an unbiased and ‘simple’ manner, avoiding too complex scientific, legal and technical jargon.

Each Article of the Nagoya Protocol is explained underlying a simple structure: The sub-section “A” on “Background” aims to give a brief introduction to and summary of the Article, including an explanation of the title of the provision, if necessary. In the sub-section “B”, “Explanation”, the emphasis is on outlining the main obligations and/or commitments; clarifying to whom they are addressed – provider and/or user country – and what exactly is expected from the addressee; as well as providing information on concepts, key terms and their possible interpretations. The last sub-section “C”, “Potential Options, Elements and Challenges for Implementation” aims at providing guidance on what is needed to make the Protocol operational. It explains possible options for implementing the respective provision and the bandwidth of legal instruments/concepts for implementation; necessary elements of each implementation option/legal instrument; as well as challenges of each option and its relevant elements.

The final publication in English language will be launched at the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 11) that will take place in Hyderabad, India, 8-19 October, 2012. Translations of the Guide in French and Spanish will be published thereafter.

The Electronic Review Process

Draft 1.0 of the Explanatory Guide was presented at an IUCN side-event during CBD SBSTTA 15 in November 2011. After a first review workshop with external ABS experts in December 2011, the current Draft 1.1 was developed which is now available for comments through this electronic review. The electronic review process will be open from 6 February until 5 March 2012.

You are kindly invited to provide your comments and feedback on Draft 1.1 using the standardized questionnaire attached. All completed questionnaires shall be sent by email no later than 5 March 2012 to Thomas Greiber and Sonia Peña Moreno using the contact details below.

Thomas Greiber
Senior Legal Officer
IUCN Environmental Law Centre
/ Sonia Peña Moreno
Senior Policy Officer – Biodiversity
IUCN Global Policy Unit

Thank you in advance for your time and comments!


IUCN Explanatory Guide to the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing

Electronic Review - Questionnaire

Name:
Institution:
Position:

I have read

The full document
The introduction
Only the following Articles: ______(please specify)

Please answer the questions listed below by selecting only one of the options presented (unless specified). Additional comments are welcome in the grey sections. Please indicate the page and line number as appropriate.

1.  Tone and language

Strongly Agree / Agree / Neutral / Disagree / Strongly Disagree
a) The tone of the explanations is neutral.
b) The language is simple and easy enough to understand.

Comments:

2.  Reader friendliness

Strongly Agree / Agree / Neutral / Disagree / Strongly Disagree
a) Overall, the guide is reader friendly.

Comments:

Strongly Agree / Agree / Neutral / Disagree / Strongly Disagree
b) There are enough boxes, tables and case studies included.

Comments:

c) Which of the following would be beneficiary to add to the Explanatory Guide? (please check all the options that apply)

More boxes
More tables
More case studies
Others ______(please specify)

Comments:

3.  Content

a) Is any explanation substantially wrong?

No
Yes (please explain and provide page and line number)

Explanation:

b) Are there any provisions which can be understood / explained differently?

No
Yes (please explain and provide page and line number)

Explanation:

c) Is there any particular information missing?

No
Yes (please explain and provide page and line number)

Explanation:

d) Which further ideas and concepts should be reflected in the specific part “C” on “Potential Options, Elements and Challenges for Implementation”? (please explain)

Explanation:

4.  Further comments and suggestions

We welcome any additional comments or suggestions.

Environmental Law Centre

Godesberger Allee 108-112, 53175 Bonn, Germany

Tel.: ++49 228/26 92 231, Fax: ++49 228/26 92 250, e-mail: , Internet: http://www.iucn.org/law