The eighth 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 9-15 November 2009, in Montreal, Canada.

The Working Group on ABS continued the negotiation of an international regime on ABS, in view of its mandate to finalize the international regime and to submit an instrument/instruments to effectively implement the provisions in Articles 15 and 8(j) of the Convention and its three objectives for consideration and adoption by COP 10 in October 2010. During the course of the meeting, ABS 8 delegates addressed operative text on the components of the regime, including traditional knowledge, capacity building, compliance, benefit-sharing and access. Delegates also discussed the legal nature of the regime. The meeting adopted the Montreal Annex, consisting of a single, consolidated draft on the international regime, and a second annex on proposals for operational texts left in abeyance for consideration at the next meeting of the Working Group. The Working Group also established an intersessional process leading up to ABS 9, including: a Friends of the Co-Chairs group to convene in late January 2010, and a Co-Chairs’ inter-regional informal consultation to convene in March 2010. A series of regional and inter-regional consultations will also be held during the intersessional period before ABS 9, scheduled to be held from 22-28 March 2010, in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.
Link to further information
IISD RS coverage of the meeting