ABSTRACT
Although there is currently a global trend of states to introduce access and benefit-sharing (ABS) regimes, states should be aware that their sovereign rights over their genetic resources (GR) enable them not to do this. States are only obliged - as user states - to establish compliance control. The geographical scope of the ABS regime extends to all organisms found in situ or ex situ on the territory of the state, including the territorial sea, as well as the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf. It also extends to the associated traditional knowledge of indigenous and local communities living within the territory of the state. Provider states have had sovereign rights over their genetic resources and traditional knowledge since the entering into force of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). States are provider states not only concerning genetic resources they possess in in situ conditions, but also insofar as they possess GR in ex situ collections.
