The number of signatories to the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS) has reached 37, following recent signatures by Gabon, Mauritania and Ghana, as well as by the European Union (EU) and 12 of its member States.
23 June 2011: The number of signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD) Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS) has reached 37, following recent signatures by Gabon, Mauritania and Ghana, as well as by the European Union (EU) and 12 of its member States.
Gabon signed the Protocol on 13 May 2011, followed by Mauritania on 18 May and Ghana on 20 May. On 23 June 2011, during a ceremony in New York, US, signatures were received from Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and the EU.
CBD Executive Secretary Ahmed Djoghlaf urged others to sign and ratify the Protocol, looking forward to its entry into force by the next meeting of the CBD Conference of the Parties (COP), to be held in October 2012, in Hyderabad, India.
The Nagoya Protocol on ABS was adopted on 29 October 2010 at the 10th meeting of the CBD COP. Fifty ratifications are required for its entry into force. [CBD Press Release][List of Signatories to the Nagoya Protocol on ABS]