Bio-Prospecting in the Arctic: An Overview of the Interaction Between the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Access and Benefit Sharing
Bio-Prospecting in the Arctic: An Over view of the Interaction Between the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Access and Benefit Sharing
Mar Campins Eritja 0
0 University of Barcelona School of Law
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Article 3
OVERVIEW OF THE INTERACTION BETWEEN
THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND
ACCESS AND BENEFIT SHARING
MAR CAMPINS ERITJA*
INTRODUCTION
Apart from its own particular climate conditions, the Arctic region is
characterized by its seasonally ice-covered ocean.1 The permanent ice does
© 2017, Mar Campins-Eritja. All rights reserved.
* Professor of Public International Law & European Union Law, Universitat de Barcelona
School of Law. This Article is part of a larger research project funded by the Spanish Ministry of
Economy and Competitiveness, “Desafíos Regulatorios del Derecho Internacional y Europeo Ante
los Avances de lasCiencias de laVida y laBiotecnología Moderna” (Reference:
DER201236793).
1 See Catherine Larose et al.,The Dynamic Arctic Snow Pack: An Unexplored Environment
for Microbial Diversity and Activity, 2 BIOLOGY 317, 318 (2013). Although various criteria can be
used to denotethe geographical extent of the Arctic region, the definition used in thAisrticle
corresponds to the area that falls within the Arctic Circle, identified by parallel of latitude 66
degrees, 32 minutes North, and includes the territories of the United States, Canada, Russia,
Norway, and Greenland (an autonomous territory still dependent on Denmark), all of which have
Arctic Ocean coastlines.See id. The Arctic Circle also includes Iceland, Sweden and Finland,
which do not have Arctic Ocean coastlines. NAJA BENTZEN & MARC HALL, EUR.
PARLIAMENnot preclude the presence of unique ecosystems and a highly
resistanatnimal and plant life.2 The Arctic is rich in natural resources and is home to
unique genetic material present in polar ecosystems.
The change of climate condition,s together with technology
development and knowledge acquired through marine scientific exploratio n,sled to
the emergence of a new activity in the Arctic region: -bpiroospecting. The
aim of bio-prospecting, a type of applied scientific research, is to explore and
to find commercial purposes for useful natural components in organis3ms.
This includes discovering components that havepotential uses in the food,
industrial, and pharmaceutical sectors, among others.
There is, however, no universal definition of bio-prospecting. The
definition of bio-prospecting put forth by the Executive Secretary of the
Convention on Biological Diversity (“CBD”) implies that bio-prospecting is the
exploration and information gathering of genetic andbiochemical material
to develop commercial products4.Alternatively, David Learysuggests a
wider definition to cover the complete proces,s starting with academic and
publicly funded research and continuing through thdeevelopment and
commercialization of products.5
TARY RESEARCH SERVS., BRIEFING: ARCTIC CONTINENTAL SHELF CLAIMS: MAPPING INTERESTS
IN THE CIRCUMPOLAR NORTH 2 (Jan. 2017), http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/
BRIE/2017/595870/EPRS_BRI(2017)595870_EN.pdf[https://perma.cc/P8GY-DM4U]; see
ARCTIC MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT PROGRAMME, AMAP ASSESSMENT 2009: HUMAN HEALTH
IN THE ARCTIC 1–2 (2009) [hereinafter AMAP ASSESSMENT] (describing the various definitions of
the Arctic region).
2 See Larose et al., supra note 1, at 318. Nevertheless, geostrategic interestin the Arctic is
mainly due to the existence of large resources, includingroughly thirteen percent of the world’s
oil reserves and as much asthirty percent of the world’s gas reserves. Donald L. Gautier et al.,
Assessment of Undiscovered Oil and Gas in the Arctic, 324SCIENCE 1175, 1175 (2009). In
addition, there are significant deposits of tin, manganese, gold, nickel, zinc, lead, platinum, and even
uranium and other various rare materials in the Arctic. See AMAP ASSESSMENT, supra note 1, at
xiv.
[T]here is an inextricable factual link between marine scientific research (either pure
or applied) and bioprospecting. It is impossible to establish a cl-ecaurt distinction
between one activity and the other and between one purpose and the other. eA- r
search endeavour organized with the intent to increase human knowledge may well
result in the discovery of commercially valuable information and vice versa.
Id. at 18 (internal citation omitted).
4 Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Progress Report on the
Implementation of the Programmes of Work on the Biological Diversity of Inland Water
Ecosystems, Marine and Coastal Biological Diversity, and Forest Biological Divers,it¶y 6, U.N. Doc.
UNEP/CBD/COP/5/INF/7 (Apr. 20, 2000).
5 David Leary et al.,Marine Genetic Resources: A Review of Scientific and Commercial
Interest, 33 MARINE POL’Y 183, 184 (2009) [hereinafterMarine Genetic Resources] (“the term
‘bioprospecting’ is more accurately defined as including the entire research and development
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