Implementation of ABS régulations by french biological Resource centres dedicated to Agronomy

In response to the Nagoya Protocol established to guarantee access to genetic resources and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their use (ABS), the European Commission established a Regulation in 2014. France has adopted the law on biodiversity in 2016, which regulates access to genetic resources taken in France and their use for research and development. The implementation of these regulations concerns all Biological Resource Centers (BRCs), excluding human biological resources. The French Research Infrastructure RARe brings together more than thirty BRCs from INRA, IRD, CIRAD and CNRS research institutes, covering a wide variety of agronomic resources. RARe BRCs, FRB(1) and legal departments of the different research institutes work together on a project funded by IBiSA, a French Infrastructure funding agency for Biology, Health and Agronomy. This project aims to develop new harmonized tools and procedures to help BRCs to work in accordance with regulations of countries of origin of the biological resources. The first task involves legal analysis of the different texts (Nagoya Protocol, EU Regulation, and French laws) to define the consequences according to nature, origin, introduction date, type of use of genetic resources. The second task is to investigate typical cases illustrating collection diversity to propose different scenari for management of collections and tools to implement the Nagoya Protocol. The third task, aims to develop IT (Information Technology) tools that will display the ABS status of each resource, taking into account legislative changes in countries providing resources. These changes will be incremented in real time in the databases of the CRBs. The final task is to raise the awareness of collection managers through the development of dedicated tools and training sessions to ensure conformity of their activities and promote sustainable and equitable use of biodiversity. (1) : Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (www.fondationbiodiversite.fr/en/)