ABSTRACT
Prior to December 1993, when the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) came into force, no international legal regime existed to regulate access to genetic resources and to promote the sharing of benefits arising from their commercial and scientific use. While many countries have long possessed regulations governing access, and use of, biological resources – such as timber, fisheries resources and botanical or zoological samples – these measures do not deal with the specifically genetic component of biological resources. In recent decades, however, technological changes have given genetic resources more potential economic value as raw material for the development of pharmaceuticals and other products, and they emerged as a contentious political and legal issue during the negotiation of the CBD.1
