Aboriginal Partnership, Capacity Building and Capacity Development on ABS

This chapter focuses on frameworks for Aboriginal capacity building and capacity development on access and benefit-sharing (ABS) under the Nagoya Protocol (NP). It examines the experiences of the Maritime Aboriginal Peoples Council (MAPC) and its collaboration with ABS Canada and reflects on other possible avenues for building trust and effective collaboration for capacity building and capacity development on ABS. Noting that Canada has an enviable track record of supporting development initiatives in the global South, it argues that Canada – specifically its Aboriginal Peoples – could benefit from capacity development support on ABS even from third parties including Indigenous and local communities (ILCs) of the global South who have experience with ABS. A potential South–North or North–North capacity building and capacity development trajectory could represent an attempt to acknowledge the status of Aboriginal peoples in the likeness of a global South in the North in need of capacity building and capacity development in a niche and emerging field such as ABS.