Nagoya Protocol
If you are conducting research with genetic resources (biological material, active substances) or with traditional knowledge, always be mindful of your partner country’s legislation and, if applicable, the provisions of the Nagoya Protocol in your research activities.
Content
What is the Nagoya Protocol?
- The Nagoya Protocol establishes an international legal framework that regulates access to and the utilization of genetic resources and traditional knowledge associated with them.
- It establishes the framework for the sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources from the perspective of the provider country and the researcher.
- It ensures that compliance with these regulations is monitored.
Does the Nagoya Protocol apply to my research?
The German Nagoya Protocol HuB provides extensive help in this regard.
What do I do if I am working in a country that has ratified the Nagoya Protocol?
- The Nagoya Protocol applies to all countries that have ratified it. It provides the relevant procedure.
- Contact the respective national agency via your national partner to find out more about the procedure and the required documents. If there is no agency, contact your partners in their country and ask them about the agency there.
- Prepare the documents together with your partner in their country and give them to the University’s research funding colleagues for signature at the end.
- The signed documents must be sent to all partners, and—in accordance with documentation requirements—digital copies must be uploaded in the Universität Hamburg Research Information System (FIS), where they will be stored for a period of 20 years.
Access and benefit sharing (ABS)
The laws on utilizing genetic resources came into force with the implementation of the access and benefit sharing (ABS) regulations of the Nagoya Protocol in 2014. They also apply to basic scientific research. This means that all researchers working with biological material are obligated to observe these rules.
In the ABS regulations, the Nagoya Protocol provides for a 3-stage procedure that must be completed by the researchers who are applying.
Further information
Federal Agency for Nature Conservation
Executing authority responsible
- All documents must be submitted to the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation
- Monitoring users of genetic resources
- The Federal Agency for Nature Conservation can impose sanctions in the case of breaches.
Contact
Federal Agency for Nature Conservation
National point of contact for the Nagoya Protocol
Konstantinstraße 11053179 Bonn
Tel: +49 228 8491-1211
Fax: +49 228 8491-1229
nagoya-cna"AT"bfn.de
Legal background
The Convention on Biological Diversity is an international law framework contract from 1992 that has been ratified by 196 countries. In addition to the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of its components, it also aims to share the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources in a fair and equitable way. The Convention on Biological Diversity only establishes a framework, which can then be shaped with protocols. One such protocol is the 2010 Nagoya Protocol—an agreement under international law that establishes access and benefit-sharing (ABS) requirements and procedures. As of April 2022, it had been ratified by 133 countries. The European Union and the Federal Republic Germany have also committed themselves to implementing the specified regulations.
These guidelines are supplemented by EU and national legal acts that aim to guarantee the implementation of obligations under international law and establish special documentation requirements:
Regulation (EU) No. 511/201413 is the basic legal act for implementing the Nagoya Protocol at the European level. It is supplemented by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/186614. Both regulations apply directly to all researchers in EU member states. The regulations oblige those who carry out research and/or development activities with genetic resources within the EU to comply with the respective ABS regulations of the provider countries. They thus supplement the sovereign ABS regulations of the provider countries.