Biodiversity Prospecting in the Coral Reefs of Fiji

by University of the South Pacific

Project Overview

Fiji, like many of the islands of the South Pacific, is home to large numbers of rare and endemic species in its forest and marine areas. Fiji has one of the best developed coral reef systems in the Pacific. Fiji's biodiversity is especially threatened due to increasing harvesting pressures and deforestation which has decreased terrestrial habitats and increased siltation of coral reefs.

The University of the South Pacific (USP) and its partners are working to help community members enhance their economic returns from their marine and terrestrial resources by developing a biological prospecting agreement between local residents and pharmaceutical companies. Partners are working with the community members to: 1) develop an equitable prospecting agreement, 2) set up a procedure to collect and process samples, and 3) develop biological and social monitoring systems to ensure that the project is helping to conserve biodiversity while meeting the needs of the people.

Over the past several years, there has been a growing interest in the concept of "biodiversity prospecting," which involves setting up agreements between tropical countries and multi-national pharmaceutical companies. In general, the company compensates the country for the intellectual property rights contained in its biodiversity in return for exclusive rights to screen the biodiversity for pharmaceutical compounds. If such screening leads to the development of a major drug, the agreements then also generally provide the host country with some share of the potential profits. The agreements completed to date -- such as the one signed with INBio in Costa Rica -- have generally been signed at the national level. The USP represents an opportunity for partners and BCN to contribute to this debate by focusing prospecting on community level links to conservation. In addition, as Fiji is a relatively small country and the project participants have close contacts with relevant government officials, the project has a good deal of potential to influence government policy regarding prospecting issues. Furthermore, given that USP plays a central role for students from throughout the Pacific Region, the policy implications will undoubtedly be carried to the other countries in the region as well.

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