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.

Al utilizar el Centro de Intercambio de Información sobre APB siempre es posible solicitar ayuda. La Secretaría está muy complacida de brindar ayuda si alguien tiene dificultades técnicas o preguntas o quiere realizar observaciones en relación con el uso del Centro de Intercambio de Información sobre APB. Para ponerse en contacto con la  Secretaría, por favor, envíenos un  correo electrónico a absch@cbd.int o use el servicio de ayuda por chat en vivo.   Al servicio de ayuda por chat en vivo se accede haciendo clic en el signo de pregunta verde ubicado en la esquina inferior izquierda de la página. Se iniciará un intercambio inmediato con personal de la Secretaría para cuestiones de apoyo técnico y orientación.

Article 29 of the Nagoya Protocol provides that each Party shall monitor the implementation of its obligations under the Protocol, and shall, at intervals and in the format to be determined by the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol (COP-MOP), report to the COP-MOP on measures that it has taken to implement the Protocol. 
The COP-MOP agreed on guidelines and format for submission and requested Parties to submit an interim national report on the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol, twelve months prior to the third meeting of the COP-MOP and through the ABS Clearing-House. Non-Parties are welcome to submit relevant information (decision NP-1/3). 

The deadline for submission is 1 November 2017. 

Why is it important to submit the Interim National Report? 
The information received through these reports will assist the COP-MOP in reviewing the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol and to make the decisions necessary to promote its effective implementation. In this regard the interim national reports will be one of the main sources of information, together with the ABS Clearing-House, for conducting the first assessment and review of the effectiveness of the Protocol and the information provided will inform and will be taken into account in the consideration of a number of issues by COP-MOP 3 and other subsidiary bodies. 
In addition, submitting the interim national report can help Parties, as well as non-Parties to: 

• Assess the level of implementation of the Nagoya Protocol and identify gaps in implementation;
• Serve as a checklist of the obligations of the Protocol;
• Identify gaps and needs in terms of capacity, and thus contribute to a more effective design of capacity-building activities and resources;
• Share experiences, challenges and solutions among countries in relation to the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol, and therefore help identifying good practices and constraints in implementation of the Nagoya Protocol”.

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 guidelines for submission (found in the annex to decision NP-1/3) provide a background on the Interim National Report on the Implementation of the Nagoya Protocol and outline the general instructions and recommendations for completing the report. Reading the guidelines can help clarify some possible questions on its submission. 

To facilitate the online submission, the Interim National Report has been divided in 12 sections:

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TIP: Saving Your Progress

The form can be completed in any order and you can work on it one section at a time. Just remember to save your draft regularly and you will be able to come back and complete the form later. The offline format, available at https://absch.cbd.int/commonformats, may be useful to collect information before filling out the online form.

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Question 2: Adding contact information 

By clicking on Add record, you can select the contact person from the list of published national contacts. Please select the individual or organization that may be contacted for more information.

If the desired contact is not in the list, you must save a draft of your Interim National Report and first add the new National Contact. For more information please refer to the guide Publishing National Contacts. 

How to answer the questions on the form

The form consists of a series of questions based on the provisions of the Protocol that establish obligations for the Parties to the Protocol. These questions are identified as mandatory and are marked with an asterisk (*). 

Generally, questions of the report are made up of a “Yes” or “No” (or in some cases, “Not applicable”) question and followed by textboxes where countries are encouraged to provide details on the measures taken as well as to report on difficulties and challenges to implement particular provisions of the Protocol. Your responses in the textboxes should be as relevant, succinct and clear as possible. 

In addition, some questions are not strictly based on the provisions of the Protocol and are identified as voluntary. They will contribute to the assessment and review of the effectiveness of the Protocol in the context of Article 31 and are intended to help identify challenges and difficulties in implementing the Protocol.

Your answer to certain questions may trigger subsequent questions to be enabled or disabled. For example, question 11 refers to whether access to genetic resources is subject to PIC in your country. By selecting ‘yes’, you will be required to answer questions 12 to 17. Otherwise, selecting ‘no’ will disable questions 12 to 17 and you may continue to question 18.

Linking the form to existing records in the ABSCH

You can also provide further information on the issue by linking to existing ABS Clearing-House records, websites or uploading documents. All sections of the form provide the possibility to link to published national records by clicking on Add record(s).

This will open a pop-up window allowing you to select from a list of your country’s published national records.

There is also the possibility to link to reference records, other files or websites. In the section Additional Information under the question Any other relevant documents you may upload files or provide links to other websites, including links to reference records already published in the ABSCH or CHM.

Please also note that you can include links in the text of your response or by making reference to a URL or the unique identifier of a particular ABSCH record. 

When consolidating information for consideration of the COP-MOP and other intersessional meetings, in addition to the information contained in the interim national report, the Secretariat will also include all relevant information published in the ABS Clearing-House. 

Providing comments on the report

The Executive Secretary welcomes any comments on the adequacy of the questions and difficulties in completing the questions, and any further recommendations on how these reporting guidelines could be improved. At the very end of the form, you will find a section to add your comments.

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.