Bioprospecting Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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When private companies that produce pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, cosmetics, flavoring, fragrances, and industrial enzymes seek plant material to integrate into their commercial products, their undertaking is often termed bioprospecting. Bioprospecting is usually conducted by private companies that search in a variety of ecosystems for certain parts of plants, ranging from barks to genetic material. Although the task of bioprospecting seems to be beneficial in terms of producing important products such as medicines, it is an activity engulfed in politics between the global north (the “developed” world) and the south (or “underdeveloped” world).

There have been several cases in which northernbased private companies have bioprospected in southern ecosystems for particular plants. However, such companies have neglected to share profits with those in the south who are the custodians of the plant, such as indigenous peoples. Additionally, claims have been made in which bioprospectors have patented indigenous knowledge regarding a particular plant, while failing to protect or compensate intellectual property rights of traditional knowledge of those in the south. These claims are known as biopiracy, which is a result of unfair or inequitable bioprospecting.

Bioprospecting, as an acceptable practice of research and development of medicinal plants, is legally supported by two international treaties. The 2002 Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), which many countries have ratified, provides those nations that recognize CBD with the legal and regulatory means to protect citizens who own plant material that is in demand through the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) mechanism. The ABS creates economic incentives to conserve biodiversity and traditional knowledge while building equitable commercial partnerships between private companies and citizens who claim their rights over natural resources. The CBD’s actions were further strengthened by the Trade Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs), which institutionalized a modern intellectual property rights system that allows for the patenting of life forms.

Sharing Access and Benefits

In addition to sharing profits and protecting intellectual property rights, countries in the south may also be able to benefit from the transfer of technology, training, and infrastructure development once a resource has been identified during the process of bioprospecting. However, the extent to which bioprospecting has occurred, has helped to conserve biodiversity, and increased profits for extractors and guardians of the resource is difficult to assess, especially because what is the highly subjective concepts of “fair” or “equitable” are difficult to define.

The most well-known positive case study of bioprospecting comes from a partnership between Costa Rica’s Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (InBio) and the U.S. pharmaceutical giant Merck and Company. InBio was designed to identity and find ways to sustainably use natural resources. In 1991, InBio made an agreement with Merck to provide natural resources from protected areas for scientific evaluation. In exchange, Merck provided $1,000,000 over two years and $135,000 worth of equipment and training to Costa Ricans involved in this partnership. The agreement also involved profit sharing between these two parties, if commercial products resulted from scientific evaluation. Although this partnership may seem equitable and fair, questions been raised regarding how fair Merck”s payments are.

A more negative incident occurred between Shaman Pharmaceuticals, which desired access to the croton tree to produce antivirals, and the Pan American Indigenous Peoples Federation (COICA) of Amazonian South America who would harvest this plant for the private company. Critics of this partnership question the compensation Shaman provided COICA and how Shaman has claimed exclusive monopoly over this plant. Shaman has also been criticized for patenting this plant and claiming “novelty” over the product, when knowledge about this plant has been held in the public domain by COICA, which is the custodian of this plant.

The extent to which bioprospecting has occurred is debatable, however. Some have claimed the media has created an “alarmist” perception that exaggerates the occurrence of bioprospecting. Because bioprospecting is expensive, time consuming, and uncovers resources that are of low or at least unpredictable value, many private companies have not invested in it, thereby forestalling what V. Bolsvert and F.D. Vivien call a “green gold rush.” It is also unclear if bioprospecting will lead to greater conservation of species because of the potential health and economic benefits they could bring or greater exploitation of ecosystems when genetic resources become dispensable. Nevertheless, bioprospecting is an activity that will remain in the spotlight because of the various ethical and political debates associated with it, such as fair trade, intellectual property rights, and access and benefit sharing.

Bibliography:

V. Bolsvert and F.D. Vivien, “The Convention on Biological Diversity: A Conventionalist Approach,” Ecological Economics (v.53, 2005);
Crook and R.A. Clapp, “Is Market-Oriented Forest Conservation a Contradiction in Terms?” Environmental Conservation (v.25/2, 1998);
Hughes, “Who Speaks for Whom? A Look at Civil Society Accountability in Bioprospecting Debates in Mexico,” IDS Bulletin (v.33/2, 2002);
P. Mulligan, “For Whose Benefit? Limits to Sharing in the Bioprospecting ‘Regime,”” Environmental Politics (v.8/4, 1999).