Module I: The Business of Biodiversity

The group broke into smaller groups to tackle the following mission: to formulate a strategic action plan for sustainable exploitation and development of biological resources and bioprospecting. Each group took on four key tasks:

• Identify the institutions that should be involved
• Outline a process for developing the strategy
• Identify basic components of the strategy and list their key elements
• Develop four early action items, capacity-building activities, or pilot projects

Each group came up with similar recommendations, based on prior discussions. There was a strong consensus that the steering committee should involve all stakeholders, including government ministries (e.g., science and technology, justice, planning, foreign affairs, agriculture, environment, trade, forestry, education, health) as well as private industry, NGOs, traditional healers associations, chambers of commerce, universities and research institutes, and representatives of local communities.

The groups determined that the process for developing a strategy should include consultations with stakeholders, synthesis of their input (seeking areas of common concern and trying to resolve any conflicts), identification of key objectives, development of an action plan with an articulation of specific programs and activities, creation of working groups and subcommittees, a review of the existing legal and political framework, and implementation, with a review on some regular basis, e.g., every three years. The basic components of the strategy, in support of this process, are a clear and sensible legal regime, political stability, a sound economic infrastructure, and the establishment of the national steering committee to coordinate the process.

Suggested early action items included (in no particular order): compiling an inventory of local bio-resources and creating a database; performing a review of the existing legal and political framework; engaging in community education/enlightenment campaign through seminars, workshops, community groups, etc; strengthening human resource capacity through training and technology transfer; initiating a foreign investment drive (ministry of commerce visits); and developing a sustainable utilization strategy for biological resources.