46 / SEEDWORLD.COM DECEMBER 2018 IN THE EIGHTIES, countries started recognizing that biological diver- sity is a global asset of value to present and future generations. In response, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) started work that after a few years of negotiations would lead to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which came into force in December 1993. The negotiating experts were to take into account "the need to share costs and benefits between developed and developing countries" as well as "ways and means to support innovation by local people.” Around the same time, countries also recognized they were very much depending on each other for plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. To that end, a voluntary agreement, the International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (IU), was adopted in 1983. However, the IU was reliant on the principle of genetic resources being the common heritage of humanity. The CBD brought genetic resources under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of national governments. However, the CBD recognized the spe- cial and distinctive nature of agricultural genetic resources. Such resources are international, with frequent border cross- ings; their conservation and sustainable use required distinctive solutions and they were important internationally for food security. Subsequently, the IU was renegotiated to align with the CBD, and was renamed as a treaty: the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA). To deal with the aspect of dependency, the ITPGRFA developed a system to facili- tate access and benefit sharing for plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, through the so-called multilateral system. In that system, access and benefit sharing are organized through a standard contract that was internationally negotiated. The main caveat however, was the access and benefit sharing through CBD What it takes for a seed company to keep track of their genetic resources. Treena Hein treenahein@outlook.com NO ACCESS, NO BENEFITS was rarely happening and countries decided to develop a separate protocol to elaborate the whole access and ben- efit sharing process. After several years of negotiation, the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) was adopted in 2010 and entered into force on 12 October 2014, as a supplementary protocol to the CBD. Its aim is the imple- mentation of one of the three objectives of the CBD: the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources, thereby contributing to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. To find out more from a seed industry standpoint, Seed World sat down with Tonny van den Boom, Global Genetic Resource Coordinator Vegetables for Bayer; Xavier Bouard, Regulatory Affairs Officer at Limagrain; Mariann Börner, Gene Bank Manager for Enza Zaden, and Lisanne Boon, company lawyer at Rijk Zwaan, who spoke about the struggles that a seed company goes through, and if there is any