ABSTRACT
Trust funds can range in size and scope. For example, Suriname’s Forest People’s Fund, which was established to facilitate benefitsharing from biodiversity prospecting and foster biodiversity conservation in a small community, began with start-up capital of US$50,000 (see Case Study 11.1). Nigeria’s Fund for Integrated Rural Development and Traditional Medicine (FIRD-TM) received original financing of US$40,000 (see Case Study 11.2). Although the startup funding in these cases is relatively small, both funds are designed to receive additional financial benefits over time. At the other end of the spectrum, Colombia’s ECOFONDO, designed to promote the nation’s environmental conservation and sustainable development, received US$41.6 million in local currency paid as counterpart to debt cancellation, over four years, by the Colombian government. (ECOFONDO, 1996)
Trust funds are also administered at different levels. The Suriname trust fund
operates at the community level; Nigeria’s is a national fund. Trust funds can be administered by governments, research institutions, non-profit organizations or community associations. For example, in Fiji, a community-based trust fund – the Verata Tikina Biodiversity Trust Fund – has been developed as part of a three-year project of the University of the South Pacific (USP), the Verata Tikina communities and commercial partners. This project is intended to link pharmaceutical drug development with conservation and community development. Initiated in 1995 with commercial partner SmithKline Beecham (SKB), the fund subsequently changed its partnership to the Strathclyde Institute of Drug Research (SIDR), which works with numerous commercial companies. The Verata community members receive per-sample fees, totalling as much as US$100,000, as a short-term financial benefit, which they are managing through the community-based trust fund (Putzel and Zerner, 1998).
