At Japan biodiversity meeting, access to resources divides rich and poor

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By Winnie Bird, Contributor / October 21, 2010

Nagoya, Japan
Representatives from 193 countries gathered in Nagoya, Japan, Monday for the opening of a two-week United Nations Conference on Biodiversity described as a “Kyoto Protocol for all living things.”

As talks at the Conference of the Parties (COP-10) on halting the global loss of species got underway, longstanding disagreements between rich and poor countries over how to split the economic benefits those species can generate loomed large. Think genetic resources rather than physical products like bushmeat or timber.

For example, under a benefit sharing agreement, a Canadian biotech company that collects plant samples in the Amazon and develops a medicine from them would, in principal, be required to share the profits with the Brazilian government and any local people who traditionally used the plant. The company would also need to get permission from the government before taking or using a native plant.

National laws governing such transactions exist in some countries. But so far, members of the convention have not been able to agree on an international system to ensure fair benefit sharing. Resource-providing countries say that’s allowed widespread “biopiracy."

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http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2010/1021/At-Japan-biodiversity-meeting-access-to-resources-divides-rich-and-poor