Policy Brief Abstract: COP15 Decision 15/9 establishes a multilateral mechanism to share benefits from digital sequence information (DSI) on genetic resources and lays out "issues for further consideration", including whether geographical information could be a criterion for the disbursement of benefits. But the decision also notes that tracking and tracing of all DSI is not possible. At CBD COP16 in 2024, Parties will need to decide whether geographical origin of DSI could be used in the multilateral mechanism, and if so, how. We have analyzed the availability of geographical information associated with DSI in a wide range of scientific databases and assessed the limitations and opportunities of using this information as an indicator tool for benefit-sharing.
Raposo et al. (Tue,) studied this question.