The Nagoya Protocol: Big Steps, New Problems

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Two-and-a-half years after the Nagoya Protocol (NP) came into effect, collections managers and experts have kicked the tires and think the vehicle is good, but they worry about the doors falling off. The protocol is meant to implement the access and benefit-sharing portions of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

The agreement's official name hints at the bureaucracy that encumbers it: the “Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from Their Utilization.” With large, unwieldy requirements, the NP is a nightmare for some. For now, people are identifying the problems and seeing how the system operates.

The CBD is an international treaty covering biodiversity access, sustainable use, and equitable benefit sharing from the use of these resources. The goal was to make sure that “provider” countries participate equally in the utilization of their genetic resources. Dirk Neumann, of the ichthyology and DNA collections of the Bavarian Natural History Collections, explained in an e-mail that the CBD was not functioning properly on a purely voluntary basis, so the NP provides a framework to ensure benefit sharing (see doi:10.1093/biosci/biv056). The United States did not ratify the CBD.