Property rights on genetic resources: economic issues

Biodiversity loss is one of the major international environmental problems. This paper analyses the question of how the use of genetic and biochemical resources in biotechnological industries might affect biodiversity conservation. It is argued that the answer will significantly depend on the concrete regimes of property rights on genetic resources and related biotechnological knowledge. One of the main conclusions derivable from this analysis is that a tightening of intellectual property rights may either aggravate biodiversity loss or strengthen biodiversity conservation, depending on various conditions. This result has interesting parallels to the results of second best theory. Furthermore it sheds new light on the debate regarding the relationship between the WTO Agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPs) and biodiversity loss.