One of the three objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity is the "fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies, taking into account all rights over those resources and to technologies, and by appropriate funding".
The ninth meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing (WGABS 9) will be held in Cali, Colombia from 22 to 28 March 2010 and is the last of three meetings mandated by the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, held in Bonn, Germany, in May 2008, to finalize the negotiations of the international regime on access and benefit-sharing. The international regime is to be adopted at the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties in Nagoya, Japan in October 2010.
