Benefit sharing mechanisms for agricultural genetic diversity use and in-situ conservation

Wenjuan Cheng, Alessio D'Amato () and Giacomo Pallante
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Wenjuan Cheng: University of Rome ”Tor Vergata”, Italy

No 1018, SEEDS Working Papers from SEEDS, Sustainability Environmental Economics and Dynamics Studies

Abstract: The agricultural genetic diversity is reducing at an accelerating pace. Benefit sharing mechanisms are well-known instruments to incentivize local genetic resource providers to maintain in-situ diversity and to avoid free-riding behaviour by multinational bioprospecting firms. We explore the role of these mechanisms in a setting where the output of bioprospecting activities (i.e. a modern seeds variety), competes with traditional agriculture, and the latter is necessary to conserve the genetic pool from which the multinational could extract the resources for developing new modern varieties in the future. We adopt a multistage game where the multinational anticipates the impact of its bioprospecting investments and price settings on the local owner incentives to conserve genetic diversity. We focus our attention on two benefit sharing mechanisms, namely profits sharing and technology transfers, and compare them with a benchmark featuring free genetic resources access. Our main conclusions suggest that incentives to conservation are the strongest under profit sharing, while a technology transfer produces a genetic erosion that is even higher than under free access. These results shed new light on policy design, especially in developing countries where agricultural genetic diversity is a strategic natural asset.

Keywords: bioprospecting; genetic diversity; modern varieties adoption; monetary benefit sharing; technology transfer. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O38 Q16 Q57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2018-05, Revised 2018-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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http://www.sustainability-seeds.org/papers/RePec/srt/wpaper/1018.pdf First version, 2018 (application/pdf)
http://www.sustainability-seeds.org/papers/RePec/srt/wpaper/1018.pdf Revised version, 2018 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Benefit sharing mechanisms for agricultural genetic diversity use and on-farm conservation (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:srt:wpaper:1018

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