The seventh meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was held from 2-8 April 2009, at UNESCO headquarters, in Paris, France.

The meeting continued the negotiation of an international regime on ABS, focusing on operational text on the objective, scope, compliance, fair and equitable benefit-sharing, and access. The Working Group is expected to finalize the international regime, for consideration and adoption by the tenth Conference of the Parties to the CBD, to be held from 18-29 October 2010, in Nagoya, Japan.
The Working Group encountered several procedural obstacles, most of which related to the structure of the negotiating document agreed upon at ABS 6 and ratified by CBD COP 9, consisting of sections on the main components, and lists of items “to be further elaborated with the aim of incorporating them in the international regime” in the case of agreement in principle (“bricks”), or “for further consideration,” in the case of disagreement or need for further clarification (“bullets”). Although this structure had assisted negotiations in the past, it provoked prolonged procedural debates in Paris, with regional groups accusing each other of trying to promote bullets to bricks through their textual proposals under different items. Two days before the end of the meeting, the Working Group agreed to abandon the bricks and bullets concept and work on textual proposals under the structure set out in the annex to COP Decision IX/12. With regard to substance, the most controversial debate concerned whether to include viruses and pathogens in the scope of the regime.
Although time and energy spent on the procedural “rules of engagement” has damaged the trust between negotiating groups, the outcome of the meeting, consisting of a streamlined working document on the objective, scope, compliance, benefit-sharing, and access, albeit highly bracketed, provides draft language on most items, and sets out parties’ preferences and points of divergence. This collective outcome will form the basis for negotiations at ABS 8, to be held from 9-15 November 2009, in Montreal, Canada, where delegates will address the nature of the regime, traditional knowledge associated with genetic resources, and capacity building.
Link to further information
IISD RS coverage of the meeting