ABSTRACT
In the Convention on Biological Diversity, Article 15 requires that ‘Access to genetic resources shall be subject to prior informed consent of the Contracting Party providing such resources, unless otherwise determined by that Party’ (Article 15.5). In some national access and benefit-sharing measures written to implement the Convention – such as those of the Philippines and the Andean Pact countries – the requirement PIC has been extended to local communities. In this way, ‘tiers’ of required PIC have been established. An academic or commercial researcher must receive PIC from both the government and the local communities whose resources or knowledge are to be collected. However, the process by which academic and commercial researchers obtain the PIC of local communities remains unclear in most countries.
