ABS in Australia: A Story of Early Success and Faltering Progress

Abstract

Australia was the first Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country to introduce Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS) laws to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) article 15—Access to Genetic Resources. To do so, it followed a path of legal and operational innovation, contributed to the further international evolution of ABS through the development of world’s best ABS practice—the CBD Bonn Guidelines on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising out of their Utilization (Bonn Guidelines) and later contributed to the development of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity (Nagoya Protocol). Yet eight years after signing the Protocol Australia has yet to ratify the treaty. This chapter outlines Australia’s development and progress on ABS, describes its innovations and contribution to the global ABS system, identifies the remaining steps needed to fulfil its obligations prior to ratification and suggests why progress has stalled. It will, moreover, identify increasing signs that Australia’s State Governments and its research community are losing patience with this delay and have begun taking concrete steps to achieve compliance with the Nagoya Protocol.