Module II: The Fundamentals of Bioprospecting Negotiations
Constructing a Contractual Agreement for Benefit Sharing

During Module II workshop participants broke into smaller working groups at certain points to focus on various tasks. The results of these breakout sessions in benefit-sharing and national priority-setting are summarized here.

Benefit Sharing Exercise

Workshop participants broke into five groups, each charged with the same task of creating a basic benefit-sharing agreement. In particular, the groups were told to assume that they represented a university committee, and that they must choose only three types of benefits to receive, i.e., they could not "have it all." Choices of benefits included up-front payments, milestone payments, royalties, intellectual property rights, or some form of capacity building (e.g., technology transfer). The groups were also advised to bear in mind a set of objectives, and to ensure that the benefits chosen matched those objectives.

All five groups chose to receive up-front payments and capacity-building. Three groups chose milestone payments as the third benefit; one chose royalties; and one creative group chose a split between royalties and milestone payments, with milestone payments to be deducted from future royalties. None of the groups chose to retain intellectual property rights.

In sum, each group was risk averse, in choosing to receive earlier and more certain benefits (up-front and milestone) over potentially greater, but future and uncertain benefits (royalties and IPR). With regard to money, in other words, sooner was thought to be better.

In the Merck-InBIO agreement, Merck agreed to pay US$1 million for the first two years, part up front and the rest in installments every six months, plus royalties; Merck also retained IPR. Workshop faculty noted that, in hindsight, InBIO would perhaps have preferred milestone payments to royalties.

Another observation made by faculty was that although the groups were charged only with representing university project leaders, they all demonstrated admirable vision by considering the viewpoints of other groups, including nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and local communities. In actual practice, sharing benefits among NGOs and communities would most likely require separate sub-negotiations in advance.

On the question of how to compensate the local communities, the groups arrived at a combination of solutions, including sharing a percentage of payments and royalties; buying the IPR from the community outright; and conservation support, to be managed jointly by NGOs and the community.

National Priorities

In this exercise workshop participants broke into groups according to nationality to discuss their respective priorities in terms of biodiversity conservation in general and bioprospecting in particular. Most of the groups felt that their countries needed some sort of national steering committee on biodiversity to review, improve, and coordinate the laws and policies pertaining to conservation—issues ranging from reforestation and wildlife management to waste disposal and community outreach. Nigeria has an existing policy on biodiversity and a national committee as well as a center for genetic resources; even so, the Nigerian group felt that there was a need for better coordination of the laws and institutions responsible for overseeing and enforcing them. Each group also emphasized the necessity for stronger conservation and education measures.

A number of common themes emerged clearly from the national reports, suggesting the utility of a regional approach to the issues. Therefore the national breakout sessions were followed by a collective identification and examination of common priorities, each of which is described briefly below.

• Conservation and Sustainable Development: This area covers several interrelated issues, including sustainable use of biological resources or, more generally, sustainable development. A particular emphasis was also placed on poverty alleviation, i.e., that the benefits of socioeconomic development must be shared equitably and not concentrated in the hands of a wealthy few. The role of biodiversity conservation in development is manifested in several forms, including bioprospecting, eco-tourism, agroforestry, and essential environmental services. Priorities include halting environmental degradation and developing sustainable use patterns, protecting endangered species, and documenting traditional knowledge.
  
  
• Capacity-Building: There was broad agreement that capacity-building in terms of developing human resources and the technology base must occur on a number of different levels. Improved research and development capacity was identified as a high priority, including building better-equipped facilities, using state-of-the-art tools like GPS (geographic positioning systems) and GIS (geographic information systems) for mapping biodiversity, and training more scientists and technical people in key fields, e.g., microbiology. Collaborative research on endemic diseases and other priorities of the region is one way of furthering this goal. In addition, training for "society at large" was called for, including biodiversity education at all levels, with a special emphasis on raising public/community awareness of conservation issues (including but not limited to bioprospecting). The point was made that technology transfer can also include the development of indigenous technologies for dissemination within and outside the region. From a regional perspective, some participants suggested that a West African center of excellence for biotechnology and pharmaceutical research should be established.
  
  
• Regulatory and Institutional Framework: As noted above, participants clearly felt that there was a need for harmonization of laws on biodiversity, taking a more comprehensive approach with improved monitoring and enforcement. An organizational structure should be established to facilitate consultation among all stakeholders in the process of formulating and revising the relevant laws; improved networking among national institutions was highlighted in this regard. At the regional level, participants recognized the role of ECOWAS (Economic Organization of West African States) in coordinating policies and attracting funds where national governments alone often cannot; SADC (the Southern African Development Community) has for some time been playing an active role in this area for the southern region of the continent. The possibility was raised of taking economic integration to the level of creating a free trade zone within West Africa so as to increase the size of the market for indigenous products and be better able to protect the region’s resources. A similar measure is currently being considered in Central America.
  
  
• Public Education/Awareness: The level of public awareness of biodiversity issues was felt to be low. Because of the importance of these resources to Africa’s socioeconomic development, and as part of the effort to raise the priority of these issues on national policy agendas, an ongoing education/sensitization effort is required at all levels of society. There is a variety of mechanisms that can be used for the purpose of education, including electronic and mass media, nature clubs, local schools, churches, and adaptations of the folklore tradition. There is a need to define the focus of education for each stakeholder group. At InBIO, for example, they have emphasized children (e.g., through a "bioliteracy" program) and decisionmakers (e.g., through policy issue seminars). Particular mention was also made of the need for sensitivity to cultural contexts, e.g., using local languages and addressing local needs.
  
  
• Knowledge Base: Each national group expressed the desire to build the knowledge base through more and better research, documentation, and dissemination. Priorities include building databases of biodiversity and traditional knowledge; keeping abreast of current information, tools, and trends in science; discovering and promoting sustainable use of biological resources; promoting non-use ("moral" or aesthetic) values as well as functional and economic values of biodiversity; creating appropriate fora for the inclusion of traditional healers and "ecosystem managers" for educational and policymaking purposes; investigating the potential and challenges of eco-tourism as an economic and conservation strategy; building institutional capacity in various sectors in order to develop authoritative repositories of knowledge in key areas; and drawing on international sources of expertise to fill knowledge gaps, e.g., in taxonomy, with an emphasis on creating mutually beneficial international exchanges.
  
  
• National Fora/Regional Networking: Several issues emerged during the discussion of creating national fora and focal points and improving regional networking. One was the importance of gender issues in any national or regional discussion. The importance of women as food producers and otherwise as users and managers of biodiversity was highlighted, to the extent that any negotiations should include women, any policy documents should include a gender component, and any resources allocated should have provisions for the inclusion of women as recipients.
  
  A general discussion of creating national focal points as a way of organizing a regional approach to biodiversity conservation yielded a two-track approach: on the one hand, true national focal points, e.g., ministries for the environment, should be identified for the purpose of developing a regional approach, with the Organization of African Unity (OAU) or ECOWAS serving as an information clearinghouse; also, the workshop participants themselves should constitute themselves as a network in order to further the goals identified in Ibadan. The workshop participants represent a unique assembly of high-caliber experts in science and law, with specialized knowledge in biodiversity issues as graduates of the GBDI/IITA training workshop, and with institutional affiliations that make them especially capable of developing and promoting an agenda within West Africa. Thus participants agreed to stay in touch electronically to further develop these ideas. The American Association for the Advancement of Science offered use of its online conferencing system (http://caucus.aaas.org) in service of this goal.