Ahead of the 16th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), on behalf of global businesses, highlights key elements for building a workable multilateral mechanism to share benefits derived from the use of digital sequencing information.
At COP16, negotiating parties will decide on the modalities for a multilateral mechanism for sharing benefits from the use of digital sequence information.
As the voice of global business, ICC outlines some key elements, from the business perspective, for building a workable mechanism that provides legal certainty, and encourages and maximises engagement from countries, rightsholders and stakeholders.
These elements include:
- Legal certainty and a broad licence-to-operate as well as the knowledge and recognition that contributions will fund work towards reaching biodiversity goals.
- A single set of simple, transparent rules and operating procedures at a global level to help provide legal certainty, a level playing field, to avoid fragmentation and have the potential to promote alignment across the various multilateral access and benefit sharing systems.
- A proportionate mechanism where the expected level of benefit sharing corresponds to the scope of the Multilateral Benefit Sharing Mechanism.
- Clear definitions of key terms and concepts to ensure clarity and legal certainty for implementation.
- A mechanism which enables and supports research and innovation by:
- ensuring open access to data, recognising that tracking and tracing is not practical.
- encouraging continued sharing of scientific information through the public database system.
- Existing non-monetary benefit sharing should be recognised, encouraged and strengthened as a voluntary track.
- Funds from the Multilateral Benefit Sharing Mechanism should be used solely to further biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, based on needs and scientific evidence of merit.
