Policy and Trade

The People and Plants International (PPI) Policy & Trade program works on laws and policies that influence the lives and livelihoods of people in biologically diverse areas. The program promotes sustainable and equitable approaches to resource management, use and trade through a range of approaches and at multiple scales, including customary law and local, national, regional and international laws and policies.

Program activities in 2007-2010 focus on land tenure and resource rights, non-timber forest products and genetic resources and are undertaken with partner institutions and groups around the world. Activities include:

• Research that fills gaps in information and understanding necessary for the design and implementation of sound policies and laws, and helps to better identify and evaluate presumed "problems" and potential "solutions";
• Publication of books, articles and policy briefs to disseminate these findings to policy makers and others; and,
• Participation in national, regional and international policy processes in order to contribute information, analysis and perspectives that promote effective and equitable policies.

Policy & Trade Projects: 2007-2010

The main projects of PPI's Policy & Trade program in 2007-2010 are Wild Product Governance, which works on laws and policies guiding the use, management and trade of non-timber forest products and the Commercial Use of Biodiversity, which promotes equity and sustainability in the commercial trade and use of genetic resources, in particular through the policy process associated with the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Background

The policy framework regulating non-timber forest product (NTFP) use, management, and trade is typically a complex and often confusing mix of measures, overseen by a wide range of sometimes competing institutions. One element of this framework is measures directly targeted at conservation or management of these resources, sometimes linked to improved rural livelihoods, or broader economic growth in a region. These measures operate in conjunction with others that, indirectly, can have equal or greater impact on NTFP use, management and trade, including taxation, land and resource rights, and regulations relating to quality control, labor and trade .

In the late 1980s NTFPs, once considered ‘invisible’ to policy makers, landed on the international conservation agenda as possible tools to promote development and conservation. Previously, NTFPs were primarily harvested and traded on the fringes of the market economy, often outside of any formal regulation. In the past 10-15 years, numerous policy prescriptions have sought to promote better management of wild-harvested resources and link the use of NTFPs to improved livelihoods. Few have been realized in law, and those that have often fall short of achieving their objectives due to a combination of factors. Unlike timber or agricultural crops, the category of NTFPs includes a broad range of species with very different ecological, livelihood, and market niches, and equally diverse management and trade practices, and end products and consumers. In some cases, NTFPs are understood to include genetic resources used in technologically advanced industries. It is also the case that NTFPs are sourced from land under very different types of ownership and management, including communal, private, government, and protected areas, each with very different policy implications. Partly as a result of this complexity, confusion often exists over what is being regulated and why. The diverse ways in which NTFPs are used, managed and traded are often not adequately reflected in proposed or existing measures, and indigenous peoples and local communities, producer groups, businesses and other stakeholders are often poorly consulted, if at all, during the policy formulation process.

Measures regulating NTFPs must carefully balance a wide range of objectives such as generation of revenue for governments through taxation, promotion of sustainability, distribution of greater benefits to harvesters and producers, quality control, and support for local businesses. A law heavily weighted to serve a single objective, and one category of products - for example commercially-traded medicinal plants and increased tax revenue for government – might create obstacles to achieving objectives associated with different kinds of NTFPs or stakeholders (e.g. improved livelihoods from local trading or subsistence use of the same species).

It is also often the case that government interest or investment in regulating NTFPs is rarely sustained over time, given the relatively small economic value of these species in formal markets. But because even cursory government regulation of NTFPs may undermine community institutions and control over their resources, measures can actually work against sustainability or equity if governments weaken traditional structures and at the same time have limited resources, capacity, and in some cases interest, to adequately implement the measures they pass.

One lesson that is emerging from around the world is that ‘less’ is often ‘more’ when it comes to government regulation of NTFPs. Where land tenure and resource rights are secure, customary laws are still strong, and local capacity exists to manage the resource base and deal with commercial pressures, customary laws often provide a more nuanced approach to regulation, integrating unique local cultural, ecological and economic conditions in ways that better suit this category of products. In cases where customary law has broken down to a significant degree, or outside commercial pressure has intensified well beyond the carrying capacity of traditional measures, governments can offer important and necessary complementary levels of regulation, something often requested by local groups. But this must be done in a targeted and informed fashion.

There is a bias in the fields of conservation and development towards intervention and action, but efforts to regulate NTFPs suggest that theoretical frameworks and assumptions originating outside a region often lead to unanticipated outcomes when they interact with local political, cultural, economic and ecological conditions. The sustainability and equity of NTFP use, management and trade depends upon a myriad of locally-specific factors, and in many cases are best addressed by a patchwork of local measures, supported by a streamlined and coherent government framework which sets the floor and minimally intervenes. In other cases, however, more extensive government intervention may prove necessary.

At the same time, there are many commonalities in experience with NTFP regulation around the world. Issues relating to the scope of laws, consultation processes to draft and implement regulations, land ownership, institutional capacity to implement law and policy, and the relationship between the wide range of legal and policy instruments, including customary law, that impact NTFP harvests are shared in most areas. However, there is little information available to harvesters, companies, policy makers, NGOs, and others seeking to develop an effective framework for NTFP regulation, and the lessons learned by those that have worked in this field are often not easily accessed.

Wild Product Governance Project Activities

The Policy Manual: Wild Product Governance

A People and Plants International manual (published by Earthscan), in collaboration with the Institute for Culture and Ecology, the University of Cape Town, United Nations University, and CIFOR

Editors: Sarah Laird, People and Plants International; Rebecca McLain, Institute for Culture and Ecology; Rachel Wynberg, University of Cape Town/Biowatch South Africa

The Wild Product Governance manual addresses the shortage of technical information available on the drafting, content, and implementation of NTFP regulations. At the same time it develops a framework for understanding the diverse issues and elements that combine to create law and policy that promote sustainable and equitable management, trade and use of species. The manual feature 13 country or region-specific chapters that examine experiences with NTFP regulation, using the lens of a particular geographic area, species, or issue (eg customary law, taxation, labor law, institutional capacity). Each chapter concludes with lessons learned and recommendations that can be drawn out and more broadly applied. Chapters from countries and regions will include: Bolivia, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, China, Fiji, Finland, India, Mexico, The Philippines, Southern Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

In addition, an overview chapter synthesizes these and other experiences, and provides a framework for development of NTFP policy. A concluding section makes recommendations for various stakeholders. An annotated bibliography, including key articles, laws, and other resources, will be linked to the manual through the People and Plants International website, and a review of available literature and resources is included in the manual.

The manual will be published in early 2009 by Earthscan.

Policy Briefs

To complement and supplement the manual and ensure wider outreach, policy briefs will be produced for distribution at international policy processes, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the World Forestry Congress, and the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The first brief will set out the key issues, synthesize findings from the case studies, and present overarching conclusions and policy recommendations. The second brief will address the important role of customary law in regulating the management, use, and trade of NTFPs, and will explore the relationship between customary and statutory law.

The policy briefs will be completed in late 2008.

The Commercial Use of Biodiversity Project

Background

Bioprospecting—the exploration of biological material for commercially valuable genetic and biochemical properties - has sparked the public and policy imagination in recent decades. Located at the interface of leading genetic and information technologies, it promises a lot: new drugs to cure diseases; innovative cosmetic, food, plant, and healthcare products; technology for developing countries; incentives to conserve biodiversity in poor countries; and potentially rich rewards for those providing the biological material and knowledge. Fifteen years ago, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, countries negotiated an agreement, the Convention on Biological Diversity, which they anticipated would bring these benefits.

But today both providers and users of genetic resources find themselves caught up in an environment characterized by misunderstanding, mistrust, and regulatory confusion. Cries of “biopiracy” abound from those concerned about the misappropriation of genetic resources and knowledge without the consent of traditional knowledge holders or countries of origin. Industry and scientists on the other hand, vent frustration about the bureaucracies created by new regulations and perceived hurdles to research placed by biodiversity-rich countries. Now scientists, industry, policymakers, and traditional communities are negotiating anew in an attempt to develop an international “access and benefit-sharing” regime that many hope will resolve some of these intractable issues.  Click here for an article on bioprospecting written by Rachel Wynberg and Sarah Laird .

People and Plants International is working with a range of groups to help develop more effective and equitable policies for the commercial use of genetic resources. In 2007-2008, Sarah Laird and Rachel Wynberg undertook a study of access and benefit-sharing partnerships in a range of commercial sectors for the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Despite a flurry of interest in these arrangements in the 1990s, there have been surprisingly few studies to track their evolution. This study addressed this gap in order to ensure that ongoing negotiations to develop an international regime under the CBD, are informed by best practice and lessons learnt from implementation. The project included:

• A literature review;
• An analysis of access and benefit sharing (ABS) contracts and agreements; and,
• Interviews with more than 40 individuals from industry, government, NGOs, international agencies, and research institutions.

The report, Access and Benefit-Sharing in Practice: Trends in Partnerships Across Sectors, was launched by the CBD Secretariat at the Conference of the Parties in Bonn, Germany in May 2008 (CBD Technical Series No. 38, 2008). Download the PDF report here.

Also launched at the Conference of the Parties in Bonn in May 2008 was a United Nations Institute of Advanced Studies  report by Sarah Laird, Catherine Monagle, and Sam Johnston: Queensland Biodiscovery Collaboration: The Griffith University AstraZeneca Partnership for Natural Product Discovery: An Access and Benefit Sharing Case Study. Commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Environment, Water, Heritage, and the Arts, this study examines a fourteen year partnership based on the collection of marine and terrestrial samples primarily from Queensland, but also China, India, Papua New Guinea, and Tasmania.

This study can be downloaded here.