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Industry has in particular expressed concern about the complexity of implementing the access and benefit sharing (ABS) regime foreseen by the Nagoya Protocol and the practical challenges that this might bring about. Concerns are also raised as to how marine genetic material may be responsibly acquired from areas under national jurisdiction. With regard to ABNJ the legal framework for ABS in terms of marine genetic resources is essentially incomplete with neither UNCLOS nor the legal regime created under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) providing much in the way of substantive regulation of this topic. Different arguments are advanced as to whether such resources form the common benefit of mankind or whether they may be freely acquired pursuant to the freedom of the high seas. The underlying issue in benefit sharing is whether the benefits from exploiting these resources should be shared by the entire international community or only by the States or individual corporations with the capacity to exploit them100. The lack of legal certainty is in turn a potential deterrent for potential investors in the Blue Biotechnology sector. At the same time there is minimal control over how marine genetic resources are acquired within ABNJ with consequent risks for what are frequently fragile marine environments. 4.6.2 Overview of possible policy actions From the perspective of the EU, possible policy interventions under this objective could include: 1. Provide on-going support for the development of an appropriate legal framework at the international level for the protection of marine biodiversity in ABNJ; 2. Disseminate good practice in connection with ABS issues relating to marine genetic resources; 3. Facilitate cooperation between Member States (identify good practices and information exchange); 4. Develop detailed guidelines for the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol in maritime areas under coastal state jurisdiction; 5. Support the implementation of the Nagoya protocol through the continued development of model ABS agreements and appropriate support mechanisms. 4.7 Development of policy options A number of areas of potential EU approaches have been put forward by the European Commission to guide sector development towards meeting the above detailed specific objectives. These include a baseline scenario, a soft option and finally a more stringent approach. These three options have been assessed in light of the problem areas and the specific objectives and have been amended with an additional option which promotes the mainstreaming and integration of Blue Biotechnology into the currently existing policy framework relevant for biotechnology. The four broad policy options are as follows:  Option 1: Baseline scenario/no additional action option;  Option 2: Facilitation and promotion/soft measure;  Option 3: Mainstreaming Blue Biotechnology; and  Option 4: Formal policy measures. The relation between the policy options and the specific objectives as well as policy actions is illustrated in Table 4.2. 100 Global Ocean Commission (2013): Bioprospecting and marine genetic resources in the high seas, http://www.globaloceancommission.org/wp-content/uploads/GOC-paper04-bioprospecting.pdf 66 Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology

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