Geoff Burton

Research Interests

Access and benefit-sharing Taxonomy and biodiversity

Appointments

Australia’s Competent National Authority on Access and Benefit-sharing Policy Advisor to the Australian Prime Minister’s Science Engineering and Innovation Council Reference Group on Biodiscovery

Key Publications

Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and the Law – Earthscan, August 2009

Biographical Statement

Geoff Burton is a Senior Fellow of the UNU Institute of Advanced Studies. He provides expert policy and practical advice to various countries on domestic and international on access and benefit-sharing (ABS). He is a contributing author to Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and the Law – Earthscan, August 2009. He is also the author of numerous papers and presentations on ABS and Traditional Knowledge: most recently delivering conference papers in 2009 in Japan, China, and Brazil. In December 2009 in Jakarta, he chaired the inaugural UNU-IAS ABS Business and Science Dialogue. As the UNU-IAS Fellow, Mr. Burton also champions the cause of taxonomy and biodiversity internationally.

Mr. Burton was formerly Australia’s Competent National Authority on Access and Benefit-sharing under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Australia’s lead negotiator on ABS issues from 1999 to 2006. In 2005, he co-chaired the first round of negotiations within the CBD on the development of an international regime on genetic resources. Within Australia, he developed national ABS policy and law and oversaw its implementation.

Mr. Burton was also policy advisor to the Australian Prime Minister’s Science Engineering and Innovation Council Reference Group on Biodiscovery that led to the establishment of the Atlas of Living Australia. In 2008, he conducted a feasibility study on the establishment of a tropical biodiversity and evolution centre for the government of Australia’s Northern Territory and Charles Darwin University.