Research Partnership with Developing Countries
A Programme funded by Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

Access to genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge in Nepal: Proactive implementation strategy on Access and Benefit Sharing under special consideration of stakeholder participation and capabilities

The "CBD's Nagoya Protocol" on Access and Benefit Sharing was adopted on 19 October 2010 by the 10th Conference of the Parties in Nagoya, Japan. Its aim is to create incentives for the conservation of biological diversity and to enable the sharing of benefits. It asks providing countries to facilitate access, and obligates users to negotiate the fair sharing of benefits resulting from the utilisation of resources and associated information. Notwithstanding many local initiatives, there are almost no countries with an established national strategy regarding ABS. Many countries have adopted defensive regulations and procedures not only hindering access for commercial purposes but also academic research. Moreover the implementation of the ABS system very often fails to integrate ABS-issues in a broader sustainable development strategy. The scientific state displays two substantial knowledge gaps hindering positive strategies. First, there is a lack of knowledge on potential criteria for assessing benefits especially for the local people in question. Second, thus far only little attention has been paid to governance issues in ABS-matters even though governance issues emerge in the process of establishing strategies and are part of strategies themselves. The project aims to contribute to the surmounting of the blockade regarding ABS by carrying out a transdisciplinary research project. It strives to develop a proactive ABS strategy and to close the identified knowledge gaps as means for strategy building. The concrete case is Nepal. The project's three elements are: a) The project elaborates a strategy for implementing the ABS system by applying participatory tools. The strategy is will rely on formal frame-conditions, on provider and user groups' information and interests, on information concerning possible benefits especially for local stakeholders and on governance related knowledge. b) A first PhD project analyses the benefit side for providers in terms of capabilities as metric for quality of human life. It will contribute both to operationalizing the capability approach and to fill the above mentioned knowledge gap. c) The second PhD project analyses favourable management frameworks between the parties facilitating sustainable use of genetic resources against the background of recent scientific approaches to governance. The project offers a unique opportunity to test the implementation of the protocol on ABS. The proposed research promises to fill an existing lacuna of high relevance for both providers of resources and users seeking access as well as indirectly for the conservation of biological diversity.

Contacts

Professor Paul Burger
Programm Nachhaltigkeitsforschung
Philosophisches Seminar
Universität Basel
Klingelbergstr. 50
CH-4056 Basel
Paul.Burger(at)unibas.ch

Rudra Prasad Upadhyay
Tribhuvan University
8212
NP- Kathmandu
rudra_upadhyay(at)hotmail.com