The Access and Benefit-Sharing Clearing-House (ABS Clearing-House or ABSCH) has been developed as a tool to support the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol. It serves as a means for sharing of information related to access and benefit-sharing arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. In particular, it provides access to information made available Parties, as well as other stakeholders, relevant to the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol.

1. Please ensure you are using the latest version of a popular internet browser, such as: 

• For Firefox: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
• For Chrome: https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/ei
• For Internet Explorer (9+): http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/internet-explorer/download-ie

2. To be able to submit reference records, you will need a CBD Account. Opening an account only takes a few minutes and requires a valid email address.

3. To publish national records, in addition to a CBD Account, you will also need the appropriate role (Publishing Authority or Authorized User) to access and publish information on behalf of your government.

Help using the ABS Clearing-House is always available. The Secretariat is happy to help if you experience any technical difficulties or if you have any questions or feedback on using the ABS Clearing-House. To contact  the Secretariat, please  e-mail us at absch@cbd.int or use the live chat help desk.  The live chat help desk can be accessed by clicking on the green question mark located in the bottom right corner of the page for immediate interaction with Secretariat staff for technical support and guidance.

Designated checkpoints, are to collect or receive, as appropriate, relevant information related to: prior informed consent, the source of the genetic resource, the establishment of mutually agreed terms, and/or the utilization of genetic resources, as appropriate Article 17, paragraph 1 (a)(i) of the Protocol. Such information collected by the checkpoint needs to be made available to the relevant national authorities, and in particular the Party providing prior informed consent, as well as to the ABS Clearing-House, as appropriate. In this way, checkpoints play a key role in the system for monitoring the utilization of genetic resources set up by Article 17 of the Protocol. Having information about checkpoints on the ABS Clearing-House can help provide certainty to users and providers of genetic resources on the institutional mechanisms put in place for monitoring the utilization of genetic resources. 

To sign in, click the “SIGN IN” link located at the very the top right corner of the page, and enter your email and password.  If you have forgotten your password please click the following link to reset it: accounts.cbd.int/password/reset. If you don’t have a CBD account, you can create one at: accounts.cbd.int/signup

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Once you have signed in, click on “Submit” in the main navigation bar and you will be taken to your Record Management Centre Dashboard. 

Dashboard

The Dashboard provides an overview of the shared national records for your country. Click on the name of the type of record you would like to edit or add to the ABS Clearing-House. 

Open a submission form

Next, click the "Add New" button or click on the "Edit" icon associated to the record you would like to update to open the submission form.

Submission form controls

Please fill in the submission form and complete all fields. Mandatory fields are indicated with an asterisk(*). The highlighted button shows you what step of the submission process you are currently on.  Clicking on the "Introduction" tab will give you important information on how to complete the form. Clicking on the "Review" tab will allow you to preview the record and highlight the mandatory fields that need to be filled before it is possible to publish the record. The record can be saved as a draft at any time. Frequently saving of records is recommended.

Submission language(s)

It is possible to introduce information one or more of the six official UN languages. The first question on each submission form asks you to select the languages you wish to submit the record in (at least one language needs to be selected). 

Website language

If you wish to view to the submission form in another language, you may change the language of the website by selecting one of the UN languages from the drop down menu located at the very top right hand corner of the screen. 

The key sections of the Checkpoint form are the  Responsibilities and National authority/ies to receive the information collected or received by the designated checkpoint.

Responsibilities

After filling out the general information indicating the country and the name of institution or government body that you wish to designate as Checkpoint, you can provide a description of the responsibilities of the checkpoint. This information can help users of genetic resources and others to identify and clarify the role and functioning of the checkpoint in the collection of relevant information about the utilization of resources at, inter alia, any stage of research, development, innovation, pre-commercialization or commercialization.

National authority/ies to receive the information collected or received by the designated checkpoint

The next part of the submission form is to identify the national authority/ies to receive the information collected or received by the checkpoint when a checkpoint communiqué (CPC) is published from this checkpoint. 

For example a patent office may be designated as a checkpoint in terms of implementation of Article 17 of the Protocol, but your country may decide that the national focal point or competent national authority/ies or any other authority receives all the checkpoint communiqués. The authority/ies receiving the checkpoint communiqué could follow up on the use of genetic resources within their jurisdiction and could then play a role in implementing Article 15 of the Protocol, including by:

• Taking measures to provide that genetic resources utilized within its jurisdiction have been accessed in accordance with the ABS measures of the Party providing the genetic resources;
• Taking appropriate, effective and proportionate measures to address situations of noncompliance with measures adopted
• Cooperating in cases of alleged violation of domestic ABS measures.

You may choose to send the checkpoint communiqué to all competent national authorities of your country as well as indicate any additional contacts to receive this information. Please ensure that your desired contacts are saved in the list of national contacts. If your desired contact is not on the list, you can save the draft checkpoint, publish the national record, and come back to update the checkpoint with the appropriate contacts. 

The final section refers to Additional Information and Notes. Please fill this section in if you have any additional information or personal notes for future reference. Please do not enter any confidential information in any of the fields.

Once you have completed all the fields, click on the “Review” tab to check that all the mandatory fields have been properly filled. On this tab a message will highlight any missing fields that need to be filled before it is possible to publish the record. You may click on the missing field to go to that field in the submission form.

When all the mandatory fields have been filled correctly, the message “the document is valid” will appear.  You are almost done! The next and final step is to publish the record.

To publish a record, click on the "Publish" tab. If you record contains any errors you will be redirected back to the Review tab until the errors are correct.  Please note that you can save the record as a draft at any time. 

If you are the Publishing Authority, you see the green “Publish”  button and will be able to publish the record directly on the ABS Clearing-House.

If you are a National Authorized User, you will see the red “Request Publication” button.  Clicking this button will automatically send a request to the Publishing Authority to verify and approve your submission before it will become publicly available on the ABS Clearing-House.