Guardians Of The (Bio-Resources) Galaxy

Over two decades ago, a group of nations banded together to protect the Earth's bio-resources by signing the Convention on Biological Diversity ("Convention"), followed by the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits arising from their Utilization.

Malaysia became a signatory to the Convention in 1992 and recently enacted the Access to Biological Resources and Benefit Sharing Act 2017 ("Act"), which was gazetted on 17 October 2017. According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment ("Ministry"), the Act will only come into force after subsidiary legislation to the Act is drafted and gazetted in the first quarter of 2018.