ABSTRACT
1 The following sections are based in large part on research conducted for the European Commission-sponsored book The Commercial Use of Biodiversity: Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit-Sharing by Kerry ten Kate and Sarah A Laird (1999). This book – published by Earthscan (www.earthscan.co.uk) – provides a far more comprehensive analysis of the commercial use of genetic resources, and should be consulted for more detailed coverage of the information and issues briefly presented in this chapter.
