ABS Information Platform-Germany
Access and Benefit-Sharing - ABS
Welcome to ther German Website on Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). General information on ABS issues at international level can be found on the 
Website of the CBD Secretary.
Implementation in Germany
Bromeliad as impressively examples for biodiversity (author: M. Hauswirth)
Constitutional Regulation for ABS
Germany, like most EU Members, did not adopt specific regulations for access to genetic resources within the scope of the ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Therefore Germany allows a free access to genetic resources in the sense of the CBD and abandons the right to grant the prior informed consent. Therefore the need to draft mutually agreed terms does not exist either. Depending on the location of a genetic resource within the sovereign territory of the Federal Republic of Germany the regulation of access is governed by the German Civil Code (BGB) or the Federal Nature Conservation Act.
caterpillar (author: M. Hauswirth)
Amendment of Patent Act - Certificate of Origin
The provision for a certificate of origin was adopted in the German Patent Act. With the implementation of the EU bio-patent directive (98/44/EU) the German Patent Act was amended and the 
biomaterial regulation was passed. The following issue was added to the Patent Act (§34a PatG) :
"If an invention contains biological material of herbal or animal origin or such material is being used the patent shall include a declaration about the geographical origin if that place is known. The inspection of the registration as well as the validity of the rights based on patents remains unaffected.
By this provision for the declaration of the geographical origin Germany has made a significant step with the ratification of Article 15 of the CBD. The German Ministry of Justice provides an online version of The German Patent Act.
The National Biodiversity Strategy adoted by the Federal Cabinet, 7 th November 2007
At international level the negotiations about an International Regime on ABS will come to the fore. The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety has now developed a national biodiversity strategy which represents as the German contribution for the conservation of the biological diversity as claimed in Article 6 of the CBD. The subject of access and benefit-sharing is part of the German action fields (see chp. C 5).
The full text of the Biodiversity Strategy is here available:
Information brochure to inform the user sectors
Sponsored by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and
Nuclear Safety, an information brochure of the Federal Agency of Nature Conservation and IUCN has been published in September 2007. It is aimed to give an overview of access and benefit sharing, its regulation aspects and current status of the international developments. The digital version can be find here (sorry, only in German): information brochure
Further publications on ABS of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation
User Sectors
Access and Benefit-sharing is an instrument to create incentives for biodiversity conservation. 15 years after the Biodiversity Convention was born one of its major issues - ABS - is insufficiently implemented, though. High transaction costs and legal uncertainty are often referred to as impediments for the accomplishment of ABS-agreements. During the consultations for an International ABS regime, standardization of transactions with genetic resources was suggested as instrument to tackle these problems. Research on the subject was requested. The Institute for Food and Resource Economics, University of Bonn recently completed a research project on economic aspects of standardisation-based instruments for ABS. The Federal Agency for Nature Conservation initiated this project with focus on Model clauses for ABS contracts and a standardized multilateral ABS approach. The results of the project are presented in the final report: BfN Skripten 286, 2011, pdf-Datei (3,2 MB)
