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International Affairs
April 2000
In her introduction to the themed articles in this special biodiversity issue of International Affairs, Halina Ward highlights the relevance of the Convention on Biological Diversity and of a rapidly evolving 'corporate citizenship' agenda to an understanding of the relationship between business and biodiversity. She asks whether a distinctive 'pro-biodiversity' business agenda has already emerged and highlights the relevance of the issues at stake to governments.
The 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) challenged signatory countries to seek and encourage new financial resources, including private-sector resources, to implement the objectives of the Convention. During the past decade, pioneering businesses have succeeded at making money while conserving and sustainably using biodiversity. What lessons have we learned? How can we speed up the adoption of biodiversity-friendly business activities? Where and how can additional private investment for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use be found? To answer these questions, this article reviews why biodiversity conservation needs private-sector finance. It defines the beneficial links between business and biodiversity; presents the business rationale for financing conservation and sustainable use; identifies who is currently investing in these businesses; and outlines the conditions necessary to attract considerably more amounts of private-sector financing for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.
The Convention on Biological Diversity incorporates an exchange that has been described as a 'grand bargain' which balances the needs of both technologically and biologically endowed countries. The role of genetic resources in R∧D and sales varies by industry sector, however, so it is difficult to generalize on company demand for genetic resources and fair and equitable benefit-sharing. It is important, therefore, to examine the particular features of industry R∧D programmes, providers of genetic resources, and trends in benefit-sharing partnerships in specific industry sectors. This article examines markets for genetic resources, costs and duration of R∧D, types of genetic resources accessed, providers of genetic resources and benefit-sharing partnerships in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, crop protection, seed, botanical medicine, horticulture, and personal care and cosmetic industries. The article concludes that experience and 'best practice' in benefit-sharing have progressed quite significantly on a number of fronts in the past decade, including the development of corporate policies in response to the CBD. The most effective form of benefit-sharing, and realization of the ' grand bargain' envisaged by the CBD, is found through partnerships between private-sector and source-country institutions that link commercial use with sustainable development and biodiversity conservation.
Agricultural biodiversity is critical for food security throughout the world. At the genetic, species, and farming systems levels, biodiversity provides valuable ecosytems services and functions for agricultural production. How can the erosion of agrobiodiversity be halted? How can it effectively be conserved and enhanced?
This article highlights key principles, policies, and practices for the sustain-able use, conservation and enhancement of agrobiodiversity for sustaining food security. After clarifying the serious threats from the global loss of agrobiodiversity, the article summarizes practical guidelines and lessons for biodiversity management in farming systems and landscapes. Such strategies build upon valuable local experiences and knowledge in traditional farming practices, and they also take advantage of recent scientific findings in agroecology and ecosystem health. There is an urgent need to adopt an agroecosytems approach, beyond a focus on genetic resource conservation alone, to implement other biodiversity-enhancing methods in farms, such as integrated ecological pest and soil management. Conflicting agricultural politics that promote monocultural industrial farming models and uniform technology packages need to be eliminated. In addition, the protection of intellectual property rights is vital for those who have knowledge of the values and uses of such biodiversity, particularly for indigenous peoples and small farmers. The approaches reviewed in this analysis show effective ways to conserve, use and enhance biodiversity that will encourage sustainable food security.
In developed countries particularly, biodiversity is sometimes seen as a phenomenon that should be conserved for its own sake. However, it has become expensive to maintain, especially in those countries that have the greatest biodiversity. There is thus a need to look at how conservationists and other parties involved can work with business constructively. Tourism is arguably the main industry where there are at least some clear mutual benefits. Despite the convergence of interests, however, different groups within this arena express reservations. This article outlines the areas in which much still needs to be done to ensure that conservationists understand the priorities of the tourism industry and tourists themselves, and emphasizes the need for increased commercial development within the field of biodiversity, not least through education and communication.
The agreement on an international biosafety treaty in January 2000 marks an important achievement in reconciling trade and environmental interests. The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety strengthens the right of importing nations to reject shipments of genetically modified organisms on grounds of environmental safety or risks to human health. Crucially, it acknowledges the precautionary principle within its environmental risk assessment procedure. However, the political compromise that led to the adoption of the Protocol failed to resolve several contentious issues including labelling, liability, and the relationship between the biosafety regime and the international trade order. This article traces the history of biosafety negotiations, analyses the Cartagena Protocol and assesses the future biosafety agenda.
In an article exploring the philosophical issues raised by environmentalism, Ben Rogers argues for an alternative both to the narrowly economic and to an extravagantly mystical concept of Nature. Species and ecosystems, mountain ranges and mineral reserves have an intrinsic value in the sense that Nature moves and disturbs us independently of our concern for our own welfare or happiness. This analysis enables us to see the inadequacy of cost-benefit analysis, which treats natural goods as commodities. At the same time, recognizing that the natural environment has an intrinsic value does not in itself release us from the necessity of making difficult choices or from hard decisions as to what is and what is not 'natural'. One way of clarifying the place that Nature occupies in our scheme of values is by way of analogies with heirlooms, works of art and historic towns and cities. These analogies shed light on what it means to insist that natural goods are not commodities, but are something we hold in trust.