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.

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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.

According to Article 17, paragraph 1 (a) of the Protocol, designated checkpoints would collect or receive, as appropriate, relevant information related to prior informed consent, to the source of the genetic resource, to the establishment of mutually agreed terms, and/or to the utilization of genetic resources (subparagraph (i)).

Such information collected by the checkpoint is to be provided to relevant national authorities, to the Party providing prior informed consent, and to the ABS Clearing-House, as appropriate. The ABS Clearing-House provides the possibility of using a form called checkpoint communiqué to collect the information received by the checkpoint and distribute it to all the relevant actors. The information collected or received by the checkpoints and distributed through the checkpoint communiqué (CPC) will assist Parties to monitor how the genetic resources within and outside of their jurisdiction are being used.

The transmission of information collected by the checkpoint, and made available to the provider country, is an essential step in the monitoring process envisaged under the Protocol. The defining function of the checkpoint is to collect and receive information from the users of genetic resources along the value chain. The transmission of information to the ABS Clearing-House through the checkpoint communiqué is to be done by the publishing authority (PA) but can be drafted by any national authorized user (NAU) designated according to national circumstance (for example, by the checkpoint, competent national authority, or national focal point). For this purpose, it is also possible to designate the checkpoint/s as NAUs in the ABS Clearing-House, as this will enable them to draft and send publishing requests on checkpoint communiqués. 

Making information for the checkpoint communiqué available through the ABSCH serves to promote legal certainty and transparency, and reduces transaction costs in the implementation of ABS requirements, while monitoring the utilization of genetic resources along the value chain.

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 Communiqué form are Details of the internationally recognized certificate of compliance and Information on the utilization of the genetic resource(s).

Details of the checkpoint and of the IRCC

In the first section you will be asked for general information, including details of the checkpoint/s that collected or received the information. If information on the checkpoint is not yet published, you can save this draft and come back to it after publishing information on checkpoint/s. Link the CPC to the record(s) of checkpoint(s) published for your country

In the next section, you will be asked to provide details of the internationally recognized certificate of compliance (IRCC) if available. If the IRCC is available, you can simply search among the records and link it to the CPC. If the IRCC is not available, you can manually fill out the details. If there is no IRCC available, the form provides different options for making available relevant information related to PIC, to the source of the genetic resource and to the establishment of MAT. You may wish to use the information available, when not confidential, to fill out the form.

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Tip:

Information entered in this section is important for the monitoring system to work. Once it receives the reference to the IRCC and the information on how the genetic resources Is being used, the provider country will be able to consult the original national permit containing all confidential information and compare this information against the information provided by the checkpoint communiqué and decide to take appropriate measures or contact the user in case of doubt or discrepancy

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If an IRCC is not available, you will be required to provide relevant information. This is important for the monitoring system to work.

It may be useful to recall that when a checkpoint is published in the ABS Clearing-House, the record is linked to the national authority/ies to receive the information collected or received by the designated checkpoint (please refer to the step-by-step guide Publishing checkpoints). These designated authorities of the user countries will also receive the information coming from their own checkpoints about how genetic resources are being used within their jurisdiction. This allows provider countries and user countries to establish a channel of communication that will help all involved to ensure compliance with ABS measures and to cooperate in case of alleged violation.

Information on the person or entity making information available at the checkpoint

Subsequently, you can provide information on the person or entity making information available at the checkpoint. Information on the person or entity will allow the provider of the genetic resource to check whether the person or entity to whom the PIC was granted is the person or entity at the checkpoint, and in case these are different persons or entities, to look at the information and conditions on third party transfer.

You can link records of national contacts, by searching in the pop-up window. If the desired national contact is not yet published, save your draft Checkpoint Communiqué and go back to your dashboard to publish the national contact. Once the national contact is published, you can come back to finalize your draft.

Information on the utilization of the genetic resource(s)

In the next section you can provide information on the utilization of the genetic resource(s). The form makes it possible to provide description of the information collected or received by the checkpoint relevant to how the genetic resource is being used at any stage of research, development, innovation, pre-commercialization or commercialization. The information provided will allow the provider of the genetic resource to check whether the use of the genetic resource is in conformity with PIC and MAT and to ensure that benefits are shared in accordance with MAT.

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.