Last year was historic for Sarawak and Malaysia with regards to the Nagoya Protocol. All thanks to the 5 indigenous communities and Sarawak Biodiversity Centre.

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@ABSProtocol @UNBiodiversity @KeTSAMalaysia @MyUNDP https://www.facebook.com/819872784752990/posts/3974887625918141/

Since I'm already on the topic of ABS and the Nagoya Protocol, I might as well make a thread.

Ok, right from the beginning. 193 countries including are signatories of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Long story short, the CBD as a framework convention gives guidelines to signatory countries. This means that the country can choose to follow them or not. However some decisions are more flexible than others.

One of the three objectives of the CBD is 'Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits arising from Biodiversity'.

- to be achieved through @ABSProtocol, a supplementary protocol to the main document. Signatories must have their own regulations to ensure profit is being shared.

This simply means should biodiversity (tree/animal/genetic unit) be harvested, the benefit (usually money) must flow back to the country/community of origin.

This might seem like common sense now, but in the past it was loosely governed internationally.

Loopholes had allowed biopiracy or for companies to make billions (usually from medical products) from local community knowledge of plants/animals.

With the Nagoya Protocol, countries especially developing countries where most biodiversity is, can be protected.

In Malaysia, we have the Access to Benefit Sharing Act 2017 - regulations to be enforced this year.

Any harvesting for research or export of genetic material from Malaysia may need to get permission from an authority in the future.

While some parties say it will stifle science, majority agree that it will protect the most vulnerable local and indigenous communities from exploitation.

To me, it's a win-win.

Knowledge can be accessed/shared with the while the community/country of origin can benefit too.