Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute Establishment Council of Ministers Regulation No. 291/2013.

The Regulation establishes the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute as an autonomous federal government! organ having its own legal personality. The objectives of the Institute shall be to ensure that the country’s biodiversity and the associated community knowledge are properly conserved and sustainably utilized, and the country and its communities get fair and equitable share of the benefits arising from their utilization.
The Institute shall have the powers and duties to: initiate policy and legal proposals on the conservation and sustainable utilization of the country’s biodiversity; survey and explore the diversity and distribution of the country’s plant, animal and microbial genetic resources; based on ecosystem approach, survey, explore and study key biodiversity hotspots; study and identify localities where biodiversity resources have been depleted and restore or facilitate the restoration of the lost species; encouraging the traditional system of exchange of species; issue access permit, negotiate and enter into access agreements in accordance with the access law, and follow up heir implementation; ensure implementation of international commitments;