The Access and Benefit-sharing Clearing-House (ABS Clearing-House, ABSCH) is a platform for exchanging information on access and benefit-sharing established by Article 14 of the Nagoya Protocol, as part of clearing-house mechanism under Article 18, paragraph 3 of the Convention. The ABSCH is a key tool for facilitating the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol by enhancing legal certainty, clarity, and transparency on procedures for access and for monitoring the utilization of genetic resources along the value chain, including through the internationally recognized certificate of compliance (IRCC). By making relevant information regarding ABS available, the ABSCH offers opportunities for connecting providers and users of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge.

Parties are to provide and update the information required under the Protocol through this information-exchange system.

Background

The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS) was negotiated in order to provide greater legal certainty and transparency for both providers and users of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge by:

• Establishing more predictable conditions for access to those resources; and
• Helping to ensure benefit-sharing when genetic resources leave the contracting Party providing the genetic resources.

Researchers and businesses need legal clarity, certainty and transparency when accessing genetic resources and/or associated traditional knowledge. Without such legal certainty, potential users of genetic resources and/or associate traditional knowledge could be less eager to invest in bioprospecting and researching activities, as their activities may lead to controversy and allegations of misappropriation or misuse of these resources or knowledge.

Providers of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge, on the other hand, want to ensure that benefits arising from the utilization of their resources are shared in a fair and equitable manner once the resource or knowledge leaves the country.

What Providers want:

• Control over access to their own genetic resources (GR) and traditional knowledge (TK)
• Ensure that users comply with all conditions set in mutual agreed terms (MAT)
• Assurance that the entitled benefits arising from utilization are received in accordance with MAT

What Users want:

• Access to GR and associated TK
• A clear understanding about how to access GR and TK
• Legal certainty for utilizing GR and TK when due process has been followed

What everybody wants:

• Fair and equitable sharing of benefits
• Sustainable use of biodiversity
• Conservation of biodiversity

The Nagoya Protocol's provisions on access, benefit-sharing and compliance provide a framework that aims to address the concerns of both users and providers. However, in order to translate the Nagoya Protocol into practice, Parties need to create the necessary conditions and take the measures required by the Protocol to ensure that a national framework is in place to implement ABS at the national level and enable the development of ABS agreements for the benefit of all involved in the process. It is in this context and with this aim that Parties to the CBD included Article 14 in the Nagoya Protocol, which establishes an Access and Benefit Sharing Clearing House (ABSCH).

The Nagoya Protocol establishes the ABSCH, as part of the clearing-house mechanism of the Convention, as a means for sharing information related to access and benefit-sharing, and in particular its goal is to provide access to information made available by each Party relevant to the implementation of the Protocol.

The ABSCH allows countries to share information on procedures for accessing genetic resources and monitor the utilization of the resources along the value chain. The ABSCH plays a key role in enhancing the legal certainty and transparency that both providers and users of genetic resources, as well as associated traditional knowledge, are looking for.