The purpose of including information in the ABS Clearing-House is mainly for:

• providing information to users of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge on the procedures for access; and
• facilitating the monitoring of the utilization of genetic resources worldwide.

It is in the interest of the country to provide the information in several languages in order to reach out to the biggest number of users of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge and to help ensure that they can understand the rules for accessing such resources. As internationally recognized certificates of compliance and checkpoints communiqués are meant to facilitate the monitoring of the utilization of genetic resources in an international environment, it is important that checkpoints and national authorities dealing with these records are able to understand their content.