This report pursues the following main objectives: (i) To provide an up-to-date overview of selected national, and as appropriate
regional, policy and legal frameworks on access to genetic resources and benefit sharing (ii) To contribute to the promotion of South South cooperation on these issues in order to advance the access and benefit-sharing agenda.
The structure of the report aims to respond to these two objectives. Following a brief description of the methodology used (section 2), an overview of access and benefit-sharing at the global level is presented (section 3). Section 4 systematises information of the
access and benefit-sharing regimes from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, the European Union (EU), India, Japan, Peru, and South Africa, providing an overview of the domestic frameworks in place. Based on this information, section 5 presents an overview of some key elements identified in the case studies, including a simple comparative analysis. The last part of the section includes a brief summary of key next steps and prospects for the future based on the work that is underway at the domestic level in the covered case studies.