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Because of their exceptional biodiversity, Brazil and Mexico seemed to be the ideal candidates for the valorisation of their genetic resources promoted by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). But fifteen years after the Rio Conference, the actual results of this valorisation are disappointing. That can be explained either by the slowness in adopting domestic laws translating the CBD or by the difficulties in controlling and regulating very complex and unstable practices and objects. This matter of fact leads to question the framework of the CBD, along with its categories and mechanisms. In spite of the relative obsolescence of this framework and in spite of the emergence of new environmental issues appearing more important, the question of the access to genetic resources and of their exploitation through bioprospection contracts is still being debated, because of the various symbols at stake (national sovereignty, defence of the biological and cultural diversity...).