The fifth meeting of the Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS WG 5) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was held from 8-12 October 2007, in Montreal, Canada.

It was immediately followed by the fifth meeting of the Working Group on Article 8(j) and related provisions.
Representing the first half of a single session that will be completed at the Working Group’s sixth meeting, to be held from 21-25 January 2008, in Geneva, Switzerland, ABS WG 5 considered substantive elements of an international regime on ABS, including: access to genetic resources; fair and equitable sharing of benefits; compliance with prior informed consent and mutually agreed terms; an internationally recognized certificate of origin/source/legal provenance; traditional knowledge and genetic resources in the context of ABS; and capacity building. Delegates also discussed two informal documents tabled by Co-Chairs Fernando Casas (Colombia) and Timothy Hodges (Canada), and debated whether they should be appended to the report of the meeting: the Co-Chairs’ notes on proposals made at the meeting; and their reflections on progress made. The report of the meeting states that the Co-Chairs’ notes on proposals made at the meeting were the sole responsibility and under the sole authority of the Co-Chairs and would be circulated to parties as information documents as soon as possible upon their completion. The meeting also invited further submissions of concrete options on the substantive agenda items by 30 November 2007.
The fifth meeting of the CBD Working Group on Article 8(j) was held from 15-19 October 2007. The meeting adopted a series of recommendations to be forwarded to the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (19-30 May 2008, Bonn, Germany) on: the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues; indicators for traditional knowledge; the progress report on implementation of the Article 8(j) work programme; the composite report on the status and trends of traditional knowledge; the traditional knowledge action plan; elements for the developments of sui generis systems for traditional knowledge protection; and an ethical code of conduct. However, delegates did not reach agreement on a recommendation on inputs by the Working Group to the negotiation of an international regime on ABS.
CBD delegates are gathering in Montreal from 22-26 October 2007, to participate in the fourth meeting of the Working Group of Legal and Technical Experts on Liability and Redress in the context of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. Discussion is expected to focus on the elaboration of options for rules and procedures referred to in Article 27 of the Protocol, focusing on a working draft prepared by Co-Chairs René Lefeber (the Netherlands) and Jimena Nieto (Colombia), which synthesizes submissions of operational texts with respect to approaches and options identified (UNEP/CBD/BS/WG-L&R/4/2).
Links to further information
IISD RS coverage of ABS WG 5
IISD RS coverage of Art. 8(j) WG 5
IISD RS coverage of the Liability and Redress Working Group