Marine Biopiracy

Governments which have signed and ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity have committed themselves to, inter alia, the regulation of the transfer of genetic resources. Prior to the Convention most countries considered genetic resources to be common heritage meaning that there was no law, or moral obligation, requiring a company collecting genetic material from another country to pay for access to that material. The Convention explicitly recognises the right of countries to establish legislation regulating access to genetic resources and, if they wish, require payment for that access. Moreover, it requires that any company or country collecting biodiversity obtain the prior informed consent of the source country.

There has been concern that companies from predominantly developed nations were making large profits out of the genetic resources of developing nations rich in genetic resources, and that none of the revenue was returning to the source nation. Developing countries may now pass legislation requiring the payment of access fees and the negotiation of royalty payments with suppliers of genetic resources. In turn, companies are required under the convention to obtain the prior informed consent of source countries when they seek access to genetic resources. Countries can require that companies demonstrate they received this consent when the company files for a patent on a new product.

In 1991, the Costa Rican Asociacion Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio), a private, non-profit, scientific organisation of Costa Rica, and Merck, a multi-national pharmaceutical corporation, signed a two year agreement. In the agreement, INBio supplies Merck with plants, insects and microorganisms samples collected from Costa Rica's protected forests. Merck then would have the right to use these samples to create new pharmaceutical products. Merck, in turn, pays InBio $1 million for access to these resources. So far no similar agreement based on marine genetic resources has been reached in any country.