Experts discuss nature conservation agreement with indigenous peoples' representatives
Basically speaking, the African devil's claw is a rather inconspicuous herb. Nevertheless it is highly sought after by pharmaceutical companies. They use the plant as raw material for a natural remedy against rheumatism, making a handsome profit from it. However, the indigenous people who first discovered the healing power of the devil's claw and would hence be entitled to own the patent to its use hardly benefit from these profits despite the fact that the international Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) calls for an equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of such resources. Federal Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who currently holds the CBD Presidency, is seeking to change this.
One of the large unsolved conflicts of interest between industrialised and developing countries is the securing of interests of indigenous peoples in the commercial and industrial use of biological resources and the marketing of their traditional knowledge. Germany is determined to solve this conflict during its CBD Presidency by forging a binding agreement under international law which will secure the access to biological resources and an equitable sharing of their benefits (Access and Benefit Sharing, ABS). Experts and representatives of indigenous peoples are meeting at the International Academy for Nature Conservation of the Federal Nature Conservation Agency from 6 to 10 July 2009 to discuss the form such an agreement could take.
A decision was already taken last May in Bonn at the Conference of the Parties to the CBD to adopt, by 2010, an internationally binding agreement on the ABS regime, i.e. on the access to biological resources and the equitable sharing of their benefits within the CBD framework. The meeting of experts in July has been asked to draft recommendations on how to improve an equitable distribution of profits from the use of traditional knowledge in a future ABS regime. The meeting will in particular give indigenous peoples' representatives the opportunity for a content-related preparation and determination of their position for the upcoming negotiations at the next meeting of the ABS working group in Montreal in November 2009.