Benefiting Local Communities Under Ethiopian Access to Genetic Resources and Benefitsharing (ABS) Laws
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Date
2023-06
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AAU
Abstract
ABS laws are meant among other things to ensure that communities benefit from the use of their
genetic resources and traditional knowledge. Communities can benefit in a number of ways, both
monetary and non-monetary. One of the key elements of ABS in this regard is that access to
genetic resources and to the associated traditional knowledge is subject to Prior Informed
Consent (PIC) of a nation home to the resources and of the local communities who are the
custodians of the genetic resources. This thesis is intended to assess mechanisms, procedures
and practices by which ABS is implemented in Ethiopia with a view to benefiting local
communities. In the case of Ethiopia, Proclamation No. 482/ 2006 and Regulation No. 169/2009
were enacted to regulate ways by which genetic resources and community knowledge is accessed
and community rights are protected. These legal provisions recognize the contributions made by
Ethiopian local Communities’ toward the conservation, development and sustainable use of
genetic resources. However, identification of specific local communities for the purpose of
benefit sharing, the mechanisms to secure local communities consent in formation of ABS
Agreements, Access fund administration and Distribution of Monetary Benefits among the
concerned local communities are among the challenging areas in implementation of ABS laws in
Ethiopia. Qualitative method was employed to collect data from ABS agreements concluded in
Ethiopia and evaluation of national ABS laws was made in light of benefiting Ethiopian local
communities. The results of this paper prevailed that the challenges in relation to benefiting
local communities under Ethiopian ABS laws related with less involvement of stakeholders,
limitations in formulation and contents of ABS agreements, and absence of clear procedure to
ensure local community participation in decision making under Ethiopian ABS laws.
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Keywords
Benefiting Local Communities, Ethiopian Access Genetic Resources,Benefitsharing Laws