After six years of negotiations, the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the Nagoya Protocol on 29 October 2010, in Nagoya, Japan. The Protocol entered into force on 12 October 2014. This Protocol is based on the Convention and supports the implementation of one of its three objectives, namely: the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.

The Protocol provides greater transparency as well as legal certainty for providers and users of genetic resources and traditional knowledge. It will, on the one hand, facilitate access to genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge and, on the other hand, promote the fair and equitable sharing of benefits between the provider country and local communities.

Genetic resources, whether plants, animals or micro-organisms, are used for a variety of purposes ranging from basic research to product development. The users of genetic resources are research institutes, universities and private companies operating in various sectors such as pharmaceuticals, agriculture, horticulture, cosmetics and biotechnology.