Questionable extension of Access and Benefit Sharing
Interesting new read on the expansion of the CBD Nagoya Protocol regulations to include "digital sequence information".
The authors advocate to rethink the global policy of Access and Benefit Sharing. The article explains the importance of a fair sharing of benefits and the unintended negative outcome of a blindfold expansion of the Nagoya Protocol to United Nations as is currently being the case. The authors criticize that the Convention's founding goal of creating incentives for conservation got lost in the process and is currently reduced to a marginal topic.
The authors see an urgent need for a new policy approach that must include a wide scientific discourse. Researchers should be aware of the implications of including genome sequence data in the Nagoya Protocol, since this would have major consequences on the functioning of science as we know it.
Reference publication
Sarah Laird, Rachel Wynberg, Michelle Rourke, Fran Humphries, Manuel Ruiz Muller, Charles Lawson (2020)
Rethink the expansion of access and benefit sharing.
Science 367(6483): 1200–1202. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba9609