A vigorous ethical and policy debate has unfolded over the past few decades about the way in which genetic resources and traditional knowledge are used, and their benefits shared, encapsulated by the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilisation. Predicated on the sovereign rights of countries over their biodiversity and associated genetic resources and intended to harness the economic power of those resources to create incentives for and fund biodiversity conservation, the so-called access and benefit (ABS) transaction was conceived to foster equitable relations between those parties providing genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge and those wishing to make use of them for research and development. Yet, despite almost thirty years of implementation, there is relatively little to show in terms of social justice, economic development and biodiversity conservation.

This theme aims to re-imagine access and benefit sharing in the context of dramatic biodiversity loss, alongside changed markets, rapidly evolving technologies and transformative ways of accessing, using and researching biodiversity and traditional knowledge. We aim to reflect critically on the implementation of ABS and its policy implications; to strengthen the social justice and biodiversity underpinnings of ABS; to develop conceptual, policy and practical tools to help governments, researchers, and local communities deal with challenges and more effectively engage with ABS; and to deepen knowledge of emerging issues such as the incorporation of genetic sequence data (“digital sequence information”) in ABS arrangements. We also aim to explore how equitable biodiversity research partnerships can be leveraged beyond the lens of ABS.