The Ambiguous March to Equity

The report critiques the draft EU Regulation on Access and Benefit Sharing, highlighting concerns over its temporal scope, the potential for 'regressive' interpretations of sovereign rights, and a 'light touch' administrative approach that may fail to ensure effective compliance with the Nagoya Protocol.

• The draft EU Regulation limits its application to genetic resources (GR) and associated traditional knowledge (ATK) accessed after the Nagoya Protocol enters into force for the EU, effectively eliminating benefit-sharing obligations for resources accessed previously, even if they are utilized for the first time after the Protocol's entry into force.
• There is a risk of a 'regressive interpretation' of the Regulation where the term 'sovereign rights' is used to suggest that provider countries lose rights over GR and ATK once the resources are in ex-situ collections or accessed prior to the EU's ratification of the Protocol.
• The Regulation employs a 'light touch' administrative approach that relies heavily on user declarations and 'registered collections' to deem due diligence, which the authors argue fails to meet the Nagoya Protocol's standards for effective checkpoints.
• A significant 'import loophole' exists because the Regulation only requires due diligence from users of GR and ATK within the EU; it does not cover products developed using GR and ATK outside the EU and subsequently imported into the EU for sale.
• The Regulation's approach to plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (PGRFA) may allow users to bypass the requirements of countries of origin by accessing non-Annex 1 PGRFA from collections in other countries under a standard material transfer agreement.
• The definition of associated traditional knowledge (ATK) in the Regulation is criticized for limiting protection to how the knowledge is described in mutually agreed terms, which may allow users to avoid obligations through narrow drafting.

APA

Natural Justice (2014). The Ambiguous March to Equity. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Ambiguous-March-to-Equity.pdf

Chicago

Natural Justice. The Ambiguous March to Equity. 2014. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Ambiguous-March-to-Equity.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Natural Justice |title=The Ambiguous March to Equity |date=February 2014 |url=https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Ambiguous-March-to-Equity.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{naturaljustice2014ambiguous, author = {{Natural Justice}}, title = {{The Ambiguous March to Equity}}, institution = {Natural Justice}, year = {2014}, month = feb, url = {https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Ambiguous-March-to-Equity.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }