ABSTRACT
The examples above include some of the better-known bioprospecting projects in South Africa, and together they illustrate certain common features, lessons and pitfalls associated with research institutions in developing countries that are engaged in the business of bioprospecting. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, they suggest that bioprospecting brings with it only a limited set of benefits. Countries wanting to commercialize their biodiversity need to do so as part of an overarching and multifaceted strategy that considers bioprospecting as one of many different options to reap benefits from biological resources. Bioprospecting per se is unlikely to solve national conservation and development problems, and needs to be complemented by a set of comprehensive and innovative approaches towards the consumptive and non-consumptive use of biodiversity. This may, for example, include the development of local phytomedicine industries that add value to resources already in use; or it may be through focused efforts to support community-driven projects on natural product development or tourism. It may also be through lobbying to bring about necessary policy changes. Effective tenure reform, for example, is likely to yield far more significant social and biodiversity benefits than bioprospecting in the long-term; likewise, there are benefits in the proper valuing in national accounting systems of services provided by natural resources.
