Since 2004, parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) have been negotiating an international regime on access and benefit-sharing. By the end of first part of the Ninth Session of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing (WG-ABS 9) in Colombia, March 2010, negotiations had resulted in the development of a text called the ‘revised draft Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity’1 (the Protocol). The current text does not make explicit reference to any other international agreements addressing access and benefit-sharing laws. Most importantly, for the purposes of this brief, the text does not refer to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). Some delegations stated that the ITPGRFA should be explicitly
mentioned; others were not so clear, questioning whether it was necessary or desirable.