Is bioprospecting a viable strategy for conserving tropical ecosystems?

Abstract

Many prominent scientists avidly advocate bio-prospecting, the systematic search for new com-mercial applications for biota, especially hithertounstudied species, as a mechanism for inducingtropical biodiversity conservation by making itcommercially attractive (Wilson, 1992; Reid et al.,1993; PAHO, 1996; Weiss and Eisner, 1998). Bio-prospecting’s premise is that nature contains hid-den assets of potentially huge, yet unknownmagnitude to humankind that can motivate andeven finance biodiversity conservation in the trop-ics. This undiscovered genetic or biochemical in-formation is commonly framed in the context ofpotential improvements in medicine or food, thusdefining a massive global population of potentialbeneficiaries. It is further argued that bioprospect-ing can affect social and economic development indeveloping countries by rewarding biota-rich butincome-poor tropical communities that preserveand wisely manage their genetic resources. Thepremise of bioprospecting, coupled with the claimthat practically all of humankind stands tobenefit, and perhaps most especially the poorestof the poor, naturally leads to an urgent desire toconserve tropical biodiversity in order to enablediscovery, extraction, and value-adding transfor-mation of tropical biota.Specifically, it is claimed that bioprospectingstimulates conservation through two mechanisms.First, bioprospecting firms should be willing topay to preserve biodiversity for its innovationoption value since they stand to reap direct finan-cial benefits from any marketable discoveries. Sec-ond, conditional on an increase in life sciencesfirms’ willingness to pay for conservation, localinhabitants’ and landholders’ valuation of biodi-versity will change to the extent that they, asstewards over biodiverse habitats, are compen-sated for their contribution to bioprospecting ac-tivities. To date, most attention with respect to