Bio-resources Valuation for Ensuring Equity in Access and Benefit Sharing: Issues and Challenges

Abstract

Loss of biodiversity constitutes a concern for human welfare, especially for the well-being of the poorest, since it acts as a major livelihood option for them. The Nagoya protocol made a platform for compliance provisions as well as the more predictable conditions for access to genetic resources and sharing their benefits. In addition, the protocol emphasises on the provisions of access to traditional knowledge (associated with genetic resources) owned by indigenous and local communities as well as benefit sharing to the community, when a company makes use of their knowledge, innovations and practices. Bioprospectors are making huge residual rents which are confined with the company as an abnormal profit/benefit. The ABS challenge is to frame a legal strategy to bounce back this abnormal profit from the bioprospectors to the bio-resources providers (communities), through the introduction of appropriate economic instruments such as royalty. The fair distribution of benefits acts as a financial incentive and source towards the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. One of the major constraints in bio-resources exchange at its collection point is market imperfection. Hence, users of bio-resources may benefit more than the providers, and this creates an unequal benefit-sharing scenario. This paper attempts to examine the significance, challenge and management options on biodiversity, various issues of biodiversity/bio-resources valuation with respect to ABS and the possible approaches for deriving the real value of bioresources for operationalising the ABS.