Jatna Supriatna, Jakarta Post 11 Jun 10;
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) commemorated World Environment Day on June 5 with the theme: “Many Species, One Planet and One Future”, reflecting the urgent need to conserve the dwindling biodiversity of life on our planet.
In Indonesia, scientists from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Conservation International (CI) and other scientific institutions continue to find exciting new species in both our oceans and our forests. We can reflect on how our rich biodiversity can benefit Indonesia after these initial discoveries are made.
Scientists work at two levels: those who catalogue the species they find and those who look for scientific innovations based on the unique characteristics of the new species. Biodiversity prospecting or “bioprospecting” looks to develop commercial uses for those unique genetic characteristics.
Examples include quinine to treat malaria, or new drugs to fight cancer now or in the future.
Bioprospecting is a market-based approach that could support long-term sustainable economic development in a biodiversity-rich country. It can also provide incentives to conserve nature.
However, this can only be done with an honest partnership between local communities, which are the traditional owners of these plants and animals, the private sector and international organizations involved in research and development. In many cases, traditional knowledge includes an understanding of the benefits that different plants and animals provide for humans.
What is needed is a systematic recording of their uses — and the patents or licensing to ensure that the local people who own these resources receive a real, long-term reward for conserving the natural ecosystem that provides such valuable natural products.
If scientists have the task of finding new species and identifying their current or future uses, the government is expected to manage biodiversity, to ensure that species do not disappear.
The government is supposed to use these resources to promote national welfare and prevent exploitation. We need to create a harmonized clear government regulation on biodiversity research, development and conservation.
There are two immediate priorities for this legislation:
First, there is a need to form an interministerial commission made up of representatives from the ministries involved in conservation of natural resources and trade.
Second, this commission needs to have one representative with the authority to negotiate terms with pharmaceutical companies and others interested in bioprospecting in Indonesia. Presently, there are several agencies in charge of conserving our biological and genetic resources, which creates opportunities for foreign parties to exploit the system for access.
Even a third party can approach local people without asking for a permit from an authorized agency. This overlapping management and lack of legal basis is a barrier to the conservation and protection of Indonesia’s biological resources. In addition, permits granted through the proper channels can take months to acquire, and typically, by the time they are granted, researchers must return home before their research has even begun.
Along with the governmental involvement in formulating a bioprospecting policy, Indonesia has a tremendous resource in its nongovernmental organizations. There are well-qualified NGOs working across Indonesia, in hundreds of distinct indigenous communities that each possess their own culture, language group, and knowledge of natural resources.
We are only just beginning to understand the value and varied applications of indigenous knowledge.
Legislative and policy frameworks must be formulated to allow such communities to regulate the access and maintain sovereignty over their biological resources as well as their indigenous and traditional knowledge.
In formulating a scheme to handle this market, Indonesia can choose to manage its relations with foreign pharmaceutical companies as a simple moneymaking tool, as if it were another commodity comparable to timber and mining extracts, and to restrict debate over the issue to the government level.
However, this approach will result in depletion of Indonesia’s natural resources without generating profits and technology advances within the country. The better choice is to manage and commercially develop Indonesia’s uniquely rich endowment of biological resources and traditional knowledge in a manner that will provide incentives for conservation to the stewards of the resources at stake: the local communities.
Indonesia has all the tools necessary to make bioprospecting work. It has rich biodiversity, a population both dependent on and traditionally knowledgeable about this biodiversity, a strong nongovernmental organization community, government institutions working in different areas of the environment, and a developed traditional medicine industry, which puts Indonesia one step ahead of the rest of the world in the exploitation of its biological resources. It also has foreign arboretums and corporations willing to cooperate to make bioprospecting work. What it does not have is the proper arrangement of these elements into one efficiently functioning system.
The writer is the regional vice president for Indonesia for Conservation International and a lecturer for the graduate program on Conservation Biology at the University of Indonesia.
