The workshop aimed at enabling an arena for researchers, policy advisors and legal practitioners to discuss current developments on debates on access to and commercial exploitation of biodiversity. Some key questions: What happens when physical collections become digital data? How would data be published, stored and shared? How would the access to digital collections be regulated? How would that affect access to physical collections? Do we need national systems for monitoring access and use of physical/digital collections? What are best policy solutions?
The workshop started by inviting a discussion on main challenges regarding access to genetic materials, to follow on the particular debate on access to Digital Sequence Information (DSI) as it is currently addressed in the framework of the Nagoya Protocol. Kjersti Lie Gabrielsen from Marbank, IMR, was part of the program giving an introduction to the way Marbank and other collections, including EBB, are approaching the challenges.
For full program see
https://digitallifenorway.org/gb/arrangements/dln-bioprospecting-workshop