The Negotiations of the Nagoya Protocol: Issues, Coalitions and Process

In: Sebastian Oberthür und Kirstin Rosendal (eds), Global Governance of Genetic Resources: Access and Benefit Sharing after the Nagoya Protocol, Abingdon: Routledge, S. 33-59.

The article analyzes the history of the negotiations on access and benefit sharing from genetic resources and traditional knowledge under the Convention on Biological Diversity, which culminated in the adoption of the Nagoya Protocol in 2010. In the beginning the authors contextualize ABS as an emerging issue in different areas of international politics. They then analyze the interests and preferences of key (coalitions of) state actors and how they shaped the dynamics of ABS-negotiations under the CBD. These coalitions include the Like Minded Megadiverse Countries, the Like Minded Asia-Pacific Group, the Group of Latin American and Caribbean Countries, the African Group, the European Union, and non-EU developed countries. The authors map the positions of these coalitions on key issues of the negotiations like legal nature, scope, traditional knowledge, international access standards, compliance with user measures, and the Protocol’s relationship with other international agreements. With the main focus on the last phase of ABS negotiations in Nagoya in October 2010, they elaborate the dynamics of the end-game, the substance of the final outcome and the prospects for the Protocol’s future success.