ICC submission on industry ABS best practices
Views and information on the development, updating and use of sectoral and crosssectoral model contractual clauses, voluntary codes of conduct, guidelines and best practices and/or standards (Article 19 and 20) in response to CBD request
The wider business community is becoming increasingly aware of the Nagoya Protocol and of access and benefit-sharing requirements, mainly due to awareness raising efforts by business associations and governments.
As the Protocol is gradually implemented through national legislation or regulation, sectors and companies whose activities may come within the scope of the Protocol are reviewing their practices to verify their conformity with new implementing legislation.
To help individual companies comply with ABS requirements, many sectors are updating or developing guidance – often through industry associations – through the form of best practices, guidelines or codes of conduct.
Several sectors already have existing guidance or models, which are used by individual companies in those sectors, and some of these have been updated to the requirements of the Nagoya Protocol. Several examples were shared during the Informal Meeting for the Implementation of Articles 19 and 20 of the Nagoya Protocol held in Tokyo on 25-26 March 2013, and/or can be found on the CBD website at http://www.cbd.int/abs/instruments/default.shtml.
Many other sectors are in the process of developing new guidance or models. As guidance or models have to take into account national legislative requirements on ABS, most of these initiatives are still on-going as the process of national implementation has not been completed in most countries.
Options for having sectoral standards and best practices globally accepted will be a strong incentive for their development and will facilitate their use significantly.
As work on industry best practices, voluntary codes of conduct, models and other guidance progresses, the business community would be pleased to share these with the CBD secretariat so that they can be made available for access on its database and website.
