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

About this book

Though the urgent need to ensure the conservation of biological diversity is now widely recognised, practical measures to protect endangered species and habitats are relatively few, and generally limited to developed countries. This book discusses the economic and scientific rationales for biodiversity conservation, using arguments drawn from the use of medicinal plants in the pharmaceutical industry.

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-Schonberg; 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.

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