NAGOYA — Halfway through the two-week COP10 biodiversity conference, a series of all-night negotiations have left many delegates exhausted but optimistic that a new protocol governing access to and compensation for genetic resources will be adopted before the event concludes Oct. 29.
But while negotiators are growing quietly confident that the access and benefit-sharing agreement, or ABS, will be successfully concluded, critics say it is unlikely to resolve the most contentious issues and that the resulting compromise will simply postpone the arguments for another two years until the COP11 conference in India, leaving a weak and ineffective agreement.
The heart of the debate revolves around the issue of accessing genetic resources often found in developing countries — especially areas with long-established indigenous populations — and fairly compensating the people whose resources and traditional knowledge are valued.