Access Benefit Sharing

Introduction

The Danish EPA has improved compliance monitoring under the Nagoya Protocol with a fully digital inspection system, enhancing efficiency, transparency, and regulatory enforcement

Case metrics

Key statistics

10+

years of compliance efforts

months to configure and deploy the system

511/2014

EU Regulation which quantifies the specific legal framework that governs the system

The challenge

Ensuring compliance with the Nagoya Protocol through a digital inspection system

The Nagoya Protocol, adopted under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), is an international agreement that ensures fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources. The protocol aims to prevent biopiracy and ensure that countries providing genetic resources receive appropriate benefits, fostering global biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.

The Danish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for ensuring Denmark's compliance with the Nagoya Protocol, particularly through the implementation of the EU Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) regulations. These regulations require organizations and institutions utilizing genetic resources to adhere to strict compliance measures, ensuring transparency and legal certainty in their use.

To fulfill these obligations, the Danish EPA needed an efficient system to oversee organizations accessing genetic resources, ensuring compliance with ABS regulations. The primary challenge was establishing structured processes that accurately identified and monitored users of genetic resources, ensured proper due diligence, and facilitated inspections. The Danish EPA required a digital solution to streamline oversight, enhance transparency, and improve enforcement capabilities.

The solution

Implementing a digital inspection system for streamlined compliance

The Danish EPA implemented a fully digital inspection system using cBrain's F2 solution to support their needs. This system automates due diligence inspections to verify contractual agreements for benefit-sharing, ensuring compliance with the Nagoya Protocol and EU ABS regulations.

The F2 platform integrates digital and physical inspection workflows, including self-service questionnaires and automated communication tools. It enables the Danish EPA to register relevant organizations, assign risk scores, and automatically generate inspection cases. Through self-service forms, users report their use of genetic resources, while the system manages reminders and requests for additional documentation. This structured approach allows the Danish EPA to efficiently review submissions, track compliance, and initiate physical inspections when necessary. By consolidating compliance processes into a single platform, the solution improves regulatory oversight and ensures accurate monitoring of genetic resource utilization.

The result

Enhancing transparency, efficiency, and regulatory enforcement

The implementation of the F2 solution has enhanced the Danish EPA's ability to monitor and enforce compliance with the Nagoya Protocol. The digital platform allows for bulk case creation and automated email surveys, providing a clear overview of responses and any required follow-up inspections or information requests. The ability to generate ad-hoc reports through search templates has streamlined reporting, making it fasterand more efficient.

Case guides within the system define workflows for assessing user compliance, reducing manual effort and ensuring consistency. The system provides a comprehensive overview of case progress, workload, and compliance data, improving transparency and knowledge sharing. Automated standardized document production based on F2 templates ensures consistency across cases.

All correspondence and documents are automatically attached to the relevant case, with indexed and searchable records, improving tracking and regulatory enforcement. The system’s automation capabilities have reduced administrative burdens, allowing Danish EPA staff to focus on compliance enforcement rather than manual data management.

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