Publication

This paper, ‘Genetic Resources’ in the CBD: the Wording, the Past, the Present and the Future, aims at contributing to the development of an International Regime on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) by clarifying the concept of ‘genetic resources’ as it has emerged and keeps evolving - particularly in light of the new knowledge and understanding developed in genomics and proteomics since 1992, the establishment of ex situ collections of genetic material and data bases of genetic information, the emerging global markets for these resources, and recent developments in modern biotechnology, biochemistry and synthetic biology. It takes a look at several examples of different ways in which the term ‘genetic resources’ is used in other international arenas than the CBD. All these developments have laid the foundations for new ways of understanding and realising the values of ‘functional units of heredity’.