ABSTRACT
Despite the recent policy interest in market mechanisms to provide incentives for biodiversity conservation, in many places throughout the world nonmarket mechanisms predominate. A major reason for this fact is that markets do not capture many of the values people place on diversity. Market failures on both the input and output side compound the problem. In this chapter, we review the sources of market failure (see also Chapters by Gruère et al., in this volume). We then consider the range of non-market institutions that people use, both directly and indirectly, to ensure access to a desired and trusted range of genetic resources for agriculture. Examples of institutions that maintain the access of rural people to plant, animal, and aquatic genetic resources are discussed. The robustness and effectiveness of these institutional options are then assessed.
