Paper short abstract:

The Code of Conduct developed by the Mexican Association of Botanic Gardens, is a foundational instrument for harmonizing the multilateral relationships that occur when botanical gardens access wild plants and the potential traditional knowledge associated with them.

Paper long abstract:

In 2016, the Mexican Association of Botanic Gardens (MABG) published its “Code of Conduct for Access and Benefit Sharing of Plant Biodiversity”, as a collaboration with Mexican Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ GmbH), inside the project entitled: “Environmental Governance–Benefit Sharing of Biological Diversity”. The intention of the MABG was to develop a Code of Conduct to be used as the foundation of a relationship between botanical gardens, stakeholders and endemic communities. The building of the Code of Conduct was a two-year process that involved members of the MABG, experts from national institutions and international advisors. It was established that the benefits that botanic gardens can share with people are mainly non-profit and include, among others, research results, publications, building of capacities and educational activities. Generally speaking, unique partnerships in the attempt to find social justice that increases the freedoms and functionalities of human communities for biodiversity continuation. Mexico's botanical gardens are –first and foremost – committed to the conservation of Mexican flora through the empowerment of local and indigenous communities. It is with this premise that Mexican botanic gardens continue to exert efforts for the development of the first National Strategy for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge. All this in support of the national authority leading the process for the creation of federal laws that expectantly will make patent the principles of the Nagoya Protocol.