Introduction
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) contains provisions on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilisation of these resources.
The Convention on Biological Diversity which was passed during the Rio Conference in the year 1992 is the first contract according to public international law that attempts to regulate the interaction with nature in a comprehensive way. The utilisation of natural resources by human beings is to be compatible with the conservation of the global biological diversity. The sustainable use of biological diversity is stated explicitly as an objective of the Convention in addition to the conservation of biodiversity.
The Convention furthermore allows for the fact that not only plants and animals and their products are usable but also the genetic resources of single species of plants and animals (e.g. as basic material for pharmaceutical research). The Convention therefore considers genetic resources of organisms as raw material or input that is internationally tradable and standardises its trade fundamentally: The fair and equitable sharing of the benefits (benefit-sharing) arising out of the utilisation of genetic resources is the third objective of the Convention.
