Food security and access and benefit sharing laws relating to genetic resources: promoting synergies in national and international governance

摘要

Are the national laws regulating access to genetic resources that countries have enacted in exercise of their sovereign rights accorded by the Convention on Biological Diversity jeopardising food security by failing to take into account the distinctive features of genetic resources for food and agriculture? If so what can be done about it? What are the obstacles to doing so? And how can they be overcome, especially in the context of the present ongoing negotiations for an international regime on access and benefits sharing under the biodiversity convention? This article examines the impact of the national access laws and other instruments on the free access and exchange of these genetic resources and hence on the maintenance of agricultural biological diversity upon which food security hinges so critically. It highlights the obstacles that stand in the way of developing countries facilitating access to their genetic resources and proposes a multilateral non-market-orientated approach to overcome them.