Intellectual Property, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development: Resolving the Difficult Issues

The impact of intellectual property rights on the rights of local communities, consumers and the environment has become a major source of controversy. This is especially so after the TRIPS Agreement in the World Trade Organisation facilitated the worldwide patenting of life forms and biological materials, which has given rise to public concerns over the environment, food security, farmers' livelihoods and the rights of indigenous peoples over their knowledge and resources.

At the heart of the debate is the increasing misappropriation of traditional knowledge by corporations that are now patenting human genes, plants and other biological materials, many of which exist in nature or have been used for generations by farmers and indigenous peoples. In this book, Martin Khor examines the "biopiracy" phenomenon, its links to the TRIPS Agreement, and its various effects. In particular, he deals with these questions:

· What are the implications of TRIPS for traditional knowledge and the rights of local communities?
· What tensions exist between the approaches and provisions of TRIPS and the Convention on Biological Diversity?
· Should life forms be granted the status of intellectual property, and has TRIPS made patentability of biological materials mandatory?
· Will TRIPS endanger the transfer of technologies required by developing countries for their sustainable development?
· What are the options for resolving these problems and what is the way forward for each issue?

This book provides a useful summary and analysis of the key aspects in this complex and controversial subject, and just as importantly, it describes the processes and debates now taking place in the WTO and other fora, and gives suggestions on how to move ahead on the various issues.

Martin Khor is the Director of Third World Network. TWN is one of a number of non-governmental organizations in different parts of the developing world which are concerned with understanding and influencing global policy. In this capacity, he has acted as a strong advocate on behalf of citizens' groups in the Third World on a range of international issues, including sustainable development, biosafety and other environmental questions, and the impact of globalization on the development prospects of the South. He received his original training in economics at the University of Cambridge.

He is a board member of the Consumers' Association of Penang (CAP), the South Centre in Geneva, and the International Forum on Globalization. He is also a former Vice Chairman of the UN Commission on Human Rights Expert Group on the Right to Development. He travels widely on speaking and other engagements and is the author of several books and numerous papers, occasional publications and newspaper articles on trade, development and environmental matters.