This book is about a new field of diplomacy that focusses on negotiations regarding the conservation and sustainable use of the world living resources. It is about biodiplomacy, a field that owes its origins to recent global concerns over the alarming rate at which living organisms are being lost due to human activity. This concern is emerging at a time when advances in science and technology are enhancing the economic potential that lies in the diversity of life on earth. Biodiplomacy deals with how the conservation of biological resources and their sustainable use impinge on international relations and vice versa. The world's biological resources have been considered as the common heritage of humankind and as sovereign property of nations. The debate was resolved through protracted negotiations that resulted in the Con- vention on Biological Diversity which was adopted in 1992 and came into force in December 1993. The Convention has established a new interna- tional regime for governing the utilization and conservation of biological ie- sources. This convention delicately balances on four main pillars: conserva- tion of genetic resources, technological development, regulated access to genetic resources and international equity.
Publication year
1994
Authors
Language
English
Keywords
indigenous knowledge, technology transfer, biotechnology
