International Legislative Protection Of Antarctic Microbial Genetic Resources

With the global warming,the Antarctic ice sheet begin to melt.The biologicalresources under the ice sheet for millions of year is exposed in front of the wholewould.The desire of knowledge mixed with the capital of the impulse toward this iceand snow field.Due to the special environment,the Antarctic microorganisms have aunique biological mechanism and physical and biochemical characteristics,whichleads to big value in scientific research and commercial applications.In order toprotect the environment and balance the ecology system,it is necessary to take somemeasures to protect the Antarctic microbial genetic resources(AMGRs) including theaccess and benefit sharing(ABS).So we have to combine the related internationalregimes.As the fundamental legal norms in Antarctic area,Antarctic treaty system has theright to regulate all activities happened in Antarctica,including theprospecting,utilization and regulation of Antarctic microbial genetic resources.Itseems inadequate for Antarctic treaty system to regulate the Antarctic microbialgenetic resources because it has more principal norms than special norms.Theconvention of biological diversity(CBD) and the international treaty on plant geneticresources for food and agriculture (ITPGR)have different limitations in the process ofAMGRs regulation:first,as one of CBD principals,―the principal of nationalsovereignty‖only apply to the genetic resources within national jurisprudence,whoseregime on the access and benefit sharing (ABS)—the Bonn guidelines is based on thistoo;second,the object of ITPGR is the food and agriculture plant geneticresources,so ITPGR do not apply to AMGRs.However,the two internationalagreements establish the ABS regime give great reference value to AMGRs.Thesouthern ocean have the richest biological resources.It’s not clear weather the UnitedNations Convention On The Law Of The Sea (UNCOLS)could apply to the southernocean. UNCOLS has established some principals, such as protecting the marineenvironment and biological resources conservation, can give us some ideas on theregulation of AMGRs. The Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights(TRIPS)give the one-side protection of patent which ignores the rights of resources providers,which arouses the dissatisfactions of the developing countries.Accordingto the practice of international legislation,it will be very inconvenient to establish anew ABS international regime.Therefore,playing the maximum effectiveness of theexisting international legal framework and strengthen the coordination between theselegal systems is the best choice from reality.It has a big significant to determine the legal status of AMGRs as the―commonheritage of mankind‖, which can achieve a fair and reasonable ABS arising formutilization of AMGRs.As an emerging powerful county,China should establish hisAntarctic strategy early,including AMGRs.Besides,China should play a moreimportant role in the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting to protect the rights ofdeveloping countries to make sure the Antarctic resources can serve all the interests ofhumanities.