Paper short abstract:

How can sustainable development be achieved in global BioEconomies? Under the forthcoming Namibian Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS) regulation a market for biodiversity is created were actors negotiate about “Nature”. The concept of “reverse bioprospecting” will be discussed.

Paper long abstract:

The commercial utilization of bio-based resources is the central premise of today's development policy-making. BioEconomy is promoted as an ‘engine‘ for sustainable development in order to address the challenges of humanity: the overexploitation of natural resources, poverty, climate change and economic crisis. The vision is created to build global BioEconomies characterized by an exchange of knowledge and capacity between the global North and South.

How can sustainable development in its economic, social and ecological dimensions be achieved in global BioEconomies?

In the present paper I will explore the creation of global BioEconomies at the example of bioprospecting negotiations in Namibia by drawing on the New Institutional Economics (NIE). Special reference will be made to the forthcoming Namibian Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS) regulation. Under ABS a market for biodiversity will be created where users and providers negotiate over the conditions of exchange.

However, I do understand bioprospecting negotiations not only as a market were user and provider bargain over the conditions of exchange, furthermore, actors involved negotiate about “Nature”. There is a need to conduct a theoretically-based deconstruction of the “selling nature to save it” logic in order to draw attention upon the underlying power asymmetries and hierarchies, potentially prohibiting the fair and equitable allocation of benefits. The opportunities and limitation of the concept of reverse bioprospecting (Kashila C. Chinsembu et al. 2011) will be discussed.