February 2025
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This chapter describes and interprets the system for sharing the benefits arising from activities with respect to marine genetic resources (MGR) and digital sequence information (DSI) on MGR of areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) that is being set up by the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction . The chapter provides an overview of discussions and rationales behind the negotiations of this system. It highlights the crucial compromises made to find a creative solution for a de-coupled monetary benefit sharing in the first phase of implementation, and to include digital sequence information in the scope of application and in the operational provisions. It also shows the contribution that the Agreement will make to the harmonisation and further improvement of best scientific practices in disclosing certain data in open access and in involving developing countries’ scientists in the research pipelines. Moreover, the chapter shows how important novelties have been integrated and made legally binding: the deposit of available samples in publicly accessible repositories, thus amplifying access to MGR of ABNJ; and the use of a batch identifier to ensure that samples are linked to materials stored in collections and to the relevant data stored in databases, and that these three elements are retrievable with the use of one single batch identifier. The chapter concludes that several open questions remain, related to modalities for monetary benefit sharing to be decided by the Conference of the Parties, and to the requirement that the monetary benefit-sharing solution related to DSI is mutually supportive of and adaptable to other access and benefit-sharing instruments.