¿It is commonly, but incorrectly assumed, that the Country of Origin under the
Convention on biological Diversity is the country in which a particular sample was
collected. The CBD, however, provides a different and far more rigorous standard
to be met for domesticated species. In the simplest possible interpretation, the
CBD requires that the origin of the material¿s ¿distinctive properties¿ be identified.
It is the country in which these distinctive properties arose that can claim to be the
Country of Origin under the Convention. As access under the CBD is provided
solely by countries of origin, the provisions that relate to access (that it be granted
on the basis of prior informed consent and mutually agreed terms) apply only to
those countries that can establish the fact that they are countries of origin. Our
knowledge of the geographic origin of traits is far from complete. Yet, if we had a
complete biological history of the myriad properties of agricultural crops, we
would doubtless find that individual accessions would contain multiple properties,
and multiple countries of origin. The practical difficulties of negotiating access
with numerous countries for a single accession would be prohibitive.¿