Convention on biological diversity australia

Australia
Australia reported
1
on Genetic resources and benefit sharing. Australia has a legislative framework in
place to ensure that when new products or scientific advances are generated using genetic information
from Australian species, Australia shares
a portion of the benefits. This allows a portion of any profits to
aid biodiversity conservation in the area the native species came from.
Benefit sharing agreements are negotiated between the jurisdiction that the genetic material is sourced
from and the
organisation using it. These are commercial contracts and normal commercial practice
applies regarding intellectual property.
Australia has long shared the genetic resources of its woody flora, especially eucalypt, acacia and
casuarina trees, with the res
t of the world.
The CSIRO Australian Tree Seed Centre has functioned for nearly 40 years as a national and international
tree seed bank. Australia’s unique woody flora has significant social and commercial significance in more
than 100 countries and seeds
have been distributed mostly without restriction concerning rights to
genetic resources or intellectual property.
Seed banking
The Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens and Heads of Australian Herbaria are engaged in
programs of scientific researc
h and technical cooperation and technical transfer such as the Millennium
Seed Bank Project under the broad direction of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. The Millennium Seed
Bank Project has an international membership and traces its origins to the Conventio
n on Biological
Diversity. In addition, there is a fledgling Australian nationally coordinated effort, Australian Seed
Conservation and Research, funded by the Kew Gardens and Australian state agencies until 2010. The
Australian Network for Plant Conservat
ion published nationally accepted guidelines for conserving
seed
—
Germplasm Conservation Guidelines for Australia (Touchell et al. 1997)
—
and these guidelines are
currently under review with the revised guidelines expected to be published in 2009.
Implementi
ng the Convention on Biological Diversity in Queensland
–
sharing benefits of genetic
resources
Australia is home to hundreds of thousands of species of plants and animals, many of which are found
nowhere else on earth. This means Australia offers enormous
potential when it comes to biodiscovery
—
but we must carefully manage access to genetic resources so biodiversity doesn’t suffer.
In 2004, the Australian state of Queensland enacted the Biodiscovery Act 2004. The Act provides
streamlined, sustainable acces
s to Queensland’s native biological resources while returning a fair and
equitable benefit to the community. This means that if the genetic code of a native plant or animal
1
Australia (2009). Australia’s fourth National Report to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity,
March 2009, 146 pp.
2
species from Queensland is used to develop a new medicine or industrial product for
instance, then a
portion of the profits is returned to the state. This profit can be used to help protect habitat for the
species behind the advancement.
The Act is Queensland’s mechanism for complying with Australia’s national genetic resources policy (t
he
Nationally Consistent Approach for Access to and the Utilisation of Australia’s Native Genetic and
Biochemical Resources). It also helps fulfill Queensland’s commitment to Article 15 of the Convention on
Biological Diversity.
The Biodiscovery Act seeks
to create legal certainty for biodiscovery organisations; ensure ecologically
sound and sustainable collection activities; provide an equitable sharing of benefits for all
Queenslanders; and encourage value
-
added research and commercialisation in Queenslan
d.
Under the Act, organisations apply for a single permit from the Queensland Government to collect
genetic resources. They sign up to a contractual benefit sharing agreement which gives them legal
certainty if the research leads on to commercialisation of
a discovery.
Ecologically sustainable use
The Biodiscovery Act ensures that the collection of native biological material is ecologically sustainable.
This is in line with the nationally consistent approach and the regulations controlling access to, and
ut
ilisation of, the genetic resources of native species in Commonwealth areas. Only quantities
reasonably required for laboratory
-
based biodiscovery research can be collected under the Act. To
support efficient, consistent and transparent administration of t
he permitting regime, the Queensland
Government developed a Compliance Codei, information sheetii and guidelines for taking native
biological materials. The code was developed in consultation with iiiresearchers, industry and other
relevant stakeholders.
B
enefit sharing
–
world’s best practice
A biodiscovery plan, detailing the applicant’s proposed biodiscovery activities, must be submitted with
the application for a permit. Biodiscovery plans are prepared by organisations in consultation with the
Queenslan
d Government. These plans form the basis for negotiating benefit sharing agreements which
govern the use of native biological resources under the Act.
The benefit sharing agreements are based on the world’s best practice guidelines, the Bonn Guidelines
on
Access to Genetic Resources and Fair and Equitable Sharing of the Benefits Arising out of their
Utilisation. This offers a flexible and practical approach to benefit sharing.
The Biodiscovery Act acknowledges the value of both non
-
monetary and monetary ben
efits. Training,
education, technology transfer, the discovery of new species and mapping Queensland’s biodiversity are
recognised as valuable benefits arising from concerted biodiscovery efforts. Biodiscovery has
contributed to the Queensland Museum’s kno
wledge of marine invertebrate faunas of Queensland, with
thousands of new species discovered. To give one example, the knowledge of sponge fauna has