International legal instruments such as the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity (“Nagoya Protocol”) and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (“ITPGRFA”) are meant to create incentives for fairly sharing the benefits of the utilization of genetic resources. These commitments have, however, been assessed by many stakeholders as an obstacle rather than an incentive to commercial activities. If this is indeed the case, ABS obligations may do more harm than good and raises the fundamental question: can ABS obligations be translated from an obstacle into an opportunity? The article discusses consumer-based mechanisms as positive drivers for benefit sharing by using private standards to incentivize ABS obligation compliance. This approach goes further than using private standards as implementation tools, and suggests that they could leverage advantages for industry from the consumer perspective, specifically a consumer-facing label on products. We suggest a research strategy addressing this approach.

中文翻译：

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私营标准对遵守遗传资源和传统知识的获取和惠益分享义务的价值的潜力

国际法律文书，如《生物多样性公约》（“名古屋议定书”）和《粮食和农业植物遗传资源国际条约》的《关于获取遗传资源和公平公正分享利用遗传资源所产生惠益的名古屋议定书》（ “ITPGRFA”）旨在为公平分享遗传资源利用的惠益创造激励措施。然而，这些承诺被许多利益相关者评估为商业活动的障碍而不是激励。如果情况确实如此，获取和惠益分享义务可能弊大于利，并提出了一个基本问题：获取和惠益分享义务能否从障碍转化为机遇？本文讨论了基于消费者的机制作为利益共享的积极驱动因素，通过使用私人标准来激励获取和惠益分享义务的遵守。这种方法比使用私有标准作为实施工具更进一步，并表明他们可以从消费者的角度利用行业优势，特别是产品上面向消费者的标签。我们建议针对这种方法的研究策略。