Intellectual Property Rights and Biodiversity Conservation: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of the Values of Medicinal Plants

by Timothy Swanson (Editor)

Overview

The urgent need to ensure the conservation of biological diversity is now widely recognized, but practical measures to protect endangered species and habitats are still small-scale and generally limited to developed countries. This volume offers a detailed analysis of the economic and scientific rationales for biodiversity conservation. It discusses the justification for, and implementation of intellectual property rights regimes as incentive systems to encourage conservation. The contributions form an interdisciplinary approach encompassing fields of study such as evolutionary biology, chemistry, economics and legal studies. The arguments are presented through the case study of medicinal plant use in the pharmaceutical industry. The book will be of interest and relevance to a broad spectrum of conservationists from research students to policy makers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521635806
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/25/1998
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

List of contributors; Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. Diversity and sustainability: evolution, information and institutions Timothy Swanson; Part A. Plant Communities and the Generation of Information: 2. Chemical diversity in plants Linda Fellows and Anthony Scofield; 3. Ethnobotany and the search for balance between use and conservation Jennie Wood Sheldon and Michael J. Balick; Part B. The Value of Plant-Generated Information in Pharmaceuticals: 4. The pharmaceutical discovery process Georg Albers-Schönberg; 5. The role of plant screening and plant supply in biodiversity conservation, drug development and health care Bruce Aylward; 6. The economic value of plant-based pharmaceuticals David Pearce and Seema Puroshothaman; Part C. The Institutions for Regulating Information from Diversity: 7. The appropriation of evolution's values: an institutional analysis of intellectual property regimes and biodiversity conservation Timothy Swanson; 8. Preserving biodiversity: the role of property rights Ian Walden; Part D. The Importance of Cultural Diversity in Biodiversity Conservation: 9. Medicinal plants, indigenous medicine and conservation of biodiversity in Ghana Katrina Brown; 10. Biodiversity and the conservation of medicinal plants: issues from the perspective of the developing world Mohamed Khalil; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...a detailed analysis of the economic and scientific rationales for the use of property rights-based approach to biodiversity conservation....The book will be of interest and relevance to a broad spectrum of conservationists from research students to policy makers." Environment International

"This book gives a lot of interesting information about intellectual property rights and biodiversity conservation....The book does not pretend to give an answer on how biodiversity conservation is to be achieved, but gives hints and counsels in which direction solutions could be found....I would like to express my hope that the discussion about biodiversity conservation will finally lead to concrete results. I am convinced that this book is a step in the right direction." Stefan Gafner, Ecoscience

From the Publisher

Analyzes the economic and scientific rationales for the use of a property rights-based approach to biodiversity conservation of medicinal plants used in the pharmaceutical industry, drawing on fields including evolutionary biology, chemistry, economics, and legal studies. Demonstrates the importance of biodiversity conservation in sections on plant communities; the value of plant-generated information in pharmaceuticals; institutions for regulating information from diversity; and the importance of cultural diversity in biodiversity conservation. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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