Biodiversity - Juridical Status of Biological Diversity
Origin of Life and Biodiversity Evolution | Benefits
of Biodiversity | Ecological Role of Biodiversity
Economic Role of Biodiversity | Ethical
Role of Biodiversity | Scientific
Role of Biodiversity | Measurement of Biodiversity
Biodiversity: Time and Space | Species
Inventory | Hotspots
of Biodiversity | Threats to Biodiversity
Biodiversity Management: Conservation,
Preservation and Protection | Juridical
Status of Biological Diversity
Juridical Status of Biological Diversity
Biodiversity must be evaluated and its evolution analysed (through observations, inventories, conservation...) then it must be taken into account in political decisions. It is beginning to receive a juridical setting.
"Law and ecosystems" relationship is very ancient and has consequences on biodiversity. It is related to properties rights, private and public. It can define protection for threatened ecosystems, but also some rights and duties
"Laws and species" is a more recent issue. It defines species that must be protected because threatened by extinction. Some people question application of these laws.
"Laws and genes" is only about a century old. While the genetic approach is not new (domestication, plant traditional selection methods), progress made in the genetic field in the past 20 years lead to the obligation to tighten laws. With the new technologies of genetic and genetic engineering, people are going through gene patenting, processes patenting, and a totally new concept of genetic resource. A very hot debate today seeks to define whether the resource is the gene, the organism, the DNA or the processes.
The 1972 UNESCO convention established that biological resources, such as plants, were common heritage of mankind. These rules probably inspired the creation of great public banks of genetic resources, located outside the source-countries.
New global agreements (Convention on Biological Diversity), now gives sovereign national rights over biological resources (not property). The idea of static conservation of biodiversity is disappearing and being replaced by the idea of a dynamic conservation, through the notion of resource and innovation.
The new agreements commit countries to conserve the biodiversity, develop resources for sustainability and share the benefits resulting from their use. Under these new rules, it is expected that bioprospecting or collection of natural products has to be allowed by the biodiversity-rich country, in exchange for a share of the benefits.
Sovereignety principles can rely upon what is better known as Access and Benefit Sharing Agreements (ABAs). The Convention on Biodiversity spirit implies a prior informed consent between the source country and the collector, to establish which resource will be used and for what, and to settle on a fair agreement on benefit sharing. Bioprospecting can become a type of biopiracy when those principles are not respected.
From Wikipedia.