Bioprospecting and Access & Benefit Sharing

Background

The Bioprospecting and ABS program was initiated in 2009 during the 10th FYP under the directive of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests. It was established with the rationale to build national capacities to understand the value of Bhutan’s biological resources and to explore measures to generate benefits from these resources. The program focuses mainly on biodiscovery research and Access and Benefit Sharing. The program received technical assistance and guidance from Nimura Genetics Solution (NGS) in the initial phase of the program and signed three Memorandum of Agreements (MoA) with NGS, Quantum Pharmaceutical Limited (QPL) and Bhutan Pharmaceutical Private Limited (BPPL) in the 10th FYP. In the 11th FYP, two ABS agreements were executed with Chanel Parfums Beaute (CPB) and Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories Ltd. (SNBL). Two tripartite ABS agreements were executed with local communities of Jom Dagam Ngomen Tshogpa, Namther Menrig Tshogpa, Menjong Sorig Pharmaceuticals Corporation Ltd. (MSPCL), Bio-Bhutan and NBC. Further, one more ABS agreement was executed between NBC and the local community of Loggchina gewog (Dzedokha Phacheng Detshen).

The Bhutan Access and Benefit Sharing (BABS) Fund was established as a plough-back funding mechanism in 2010 to receive monetary benefits accrued from access to genetic resources or its associated traditional knowledge and support biodiversity conservation initiatives. The Bioprospecting laboratory was established through the Bioprospecting project supported by BTFEC with a fund of USD 300,000. The program was further strengthened in terms of legal frameworks, capacity development, awareness raising, infrastructure up-gradation and piloting ABS projects through a funding support of USD 1.1 million from the UNDP-GEF project on implementing the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing in Bhutan. In addition, funding support of USD 61,000 from Genetic Resources Policy Initiatives (GRPI II) project of Biodiversity International focused on raising awareness on ABS and assisting in ABS policy formulation. NBC also received technical and committed funding support of USD 199,000 from Chanel Parfums Beaute as a research grant towards national capacity development and research on potential biological resources.

  1. Document, protect and appropriately utilize TK associated with biological resources.
  2. Conduct exploration and research on biological resources of the country for natural product development and biodiscovery.
  3. Implement the National Access and Benefit Sharing Policy.
  4. Promote innovative measures to encourage people-centric conservation (e.g. Bhutan Access and Benefit Sharing Fund, Community based natural resource management initiatives, etc.).
  5. Provide technical inputs for developing policies and protocols on conservation and sustainable use of biological resources and associated Traditional Knowledge.
  6. Provide technical backstopping for the execution of contract agreements, Material Transfer Agreement, awareness raising programs, etc.
  7. Promote regional and international linkages for collaborative work in the field of bioprospecting and access and benefit sharing.
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