In lead-up to adoption of post-2020 global biodiversity framework at COP-15, the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing remains more relevant than ever

29 October 2021. On its eleventh anniversary, the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity remains as relevant as ever.

Adopted on 29 October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan and in force since 12 October 2014, the Nagoya Protocol is a momentous international environmental agreement which embodies a commitment to fairer and more equitable relationships around the use of genetic resources, and the use of the associated traditional knowledge held by indigenous peoples and local communities.

“As we develop the post-2020 global biodiversity framework,” said Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), “the spirit and principles of the Nagoya Protocol will remain critically relevant in the upcoming discussions and will play a key role in the successful achievement of not only Goal C and Target 13, which address access and benefit-sharing in the draft framework, but also in the contribution it makes towards the sustainable use and conservation of our planet’s biodiversity.”

“The Nagoya Protocol can serve as a vehicle for sustained positive change and transformation as we strive to achieve our 2050 vision of living in harmony with nature. Therefore, it is important that more countries ratify the Protocol so that we may all reach, and achieve, a sustained future for the planet and humanity.”