U.N.

CONVENTION ON BIODIVERSITY: THE NORTH-SOUTH DEBATE

Prior to Stockholm, the only major legal instrument for conserving biodiversity was the 1971 Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat. Between Stockholm and Rio Conference, a lot of important legislations concerning biodiversity were passed like the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. In the meanwhile, the developing countries were pushing for greater access to biotechnology that resulted from their resources. Biodiversity was first brought forth on the international agenda in 1992 at the Rio Summit. The Convention on Biological Diversity signed in Rio and now ratified by almost all the countries in the world with the notable exception of United States, this convention aims to achieve the biodiversity objectives of: conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of its components and equitable sharing of benefits derived from the utilisation of these resources. Politics is a key factor in biodiversity as political decisions have a direct impact on the survival of biodiversity. These decisions rest upon the axis of power between the developed and developing world. A whole debate exists between the developed and developing world centered on issues of Sovereignty, Technology Transfer and Financial Assistance. Sovereignty: The developing countries recognise their sovereign rights over all of their natural resources. They have the right to control access to these resources and demand reimbursement for the use of these resources and the products resulting from them. The developed countries recognize that the developing world is rich in resources and they want continued access to third world biodiversity. Technology Transfer: Technology transfer has long been a point of discontent between the developed and developing world. Almost all advanced technology originates in the developed world and the Third World wants access to biotechnology that resulted from their resources. On the other hand, the developed countries are not in the favour of giving the developing countries access to their technology citing that this technology is the result of their hard work. The resources of developing countries gain importance only with the application of the developed worlds technology. Financial Assistance: The developing countries want the developed countries to finance efforts for environmental protection and conservation. The bulk of environmental degradation is the result of the industrialization activities of the developed world and so the developing countries want them to bear the financial burden of protecting the environment. But the developed countries resist this additional financial assistance as they do not want to provide the bulk of money for any fund.

Since the Convention on Biological Diversity was signed in 1992 and uptil now not a lot of progress have been made. I will review all the progress that had been made or not

made on conservation of biotechnology from Rio uptil now, study the impact of political decisions on biodiversity and analyse the debate on biodiversity between the developed and developing world.