MBABS
Moving beyond the Access to Benefit Sharing
Description

Many countries worldwide have ratified the Access to Benefit Sharing (ABS) of the Nagoya Protocol under the convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The ABS ultimately seeks to fulfil the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources. The ABS encourages opportunities to exploit genetic resources, so that benefits can be shared equally and fairly between knowledge holders and industrial companies. India has since the ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992 granted over 1500 ABS applications; however the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has signed only 100 ABS agreements. While the ABS seem to pave the way forward to a win-win situation between the local communities and industrial companies, little is known of the impacts on local communities.

The study will explore the ABS at a micro level for medicinal and aromatic plants exploited by corporations and their impact on the farmers, growers, and rural women. It will analyse 1) the factors that determine the attribution of benefits, 2) the short, long term impact of ABS on local communities, socio-economic conditions, social status, the retention of traditional knowledge, and resource sustainability, 3) and whether women access the ABS in a context mostly controlled by male panchayat. The results will influence other entrepreneurial models beyond the Indian case study, such as the cooperative model in Morocco which still struggles to implement the ABS and other European contexts where the ABS application remains unclear. The research will contribute to the current debate of the Access of Benefit Sharing, and its impacts at a local level. The Fellowship will deliver three publications, public outreach materials to avail this new field of inquiry to a wider academic and non-academic audience to resolve issues of social exclusion. 

Internal Partners
Research Centre Research Group Role in Project Begin Date End Date
CRIA-Iscte Research Group Circulation and Place-Making Partner 2020-11-02 2022-06-10
External Partners

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Project Team
Name Affiliation Role in Project Begin Date End Date
Bernadette Montanari -- Principal Researcher 2020-11-02 2024-06-10
Project Fundings
Reference/Code Funding DOI Funding Type Funding Program Funding Amount (Global) Funding Amount (Local) Begin Date End Date
894416 -- Contract CE - H2020-MSCA-IF-2019 135634 135634 2020-11-02 2024-06-10
Publication Outputs

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Related Research Data Records

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Related References in the Media

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Other Outputs

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Project Files

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With the objective to increase the research activity directed towards the achievement of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the possibility of associating scientific projects with the Sustainable Development Goals is now available in Ciência_Iscte. These are the Sustainable Development Goals identified for this project. For more detailed information on the Sustainable Development Goals, click here.

Moving beyond the Access to Benefit Sharing
2020-11-02
2022-10-31