ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that both traditional and novel property mechanisms in wild biota may, by accident or design, be a basic factor in adaptive collaboration management systems that encompass wild biota. It examines how biotechnology has altered traditional institutional property structures in wild biota to create important new natural resource problems and opportunities. The federal government asserts a property interest in all endangered species, migratory birds, marine mammals, eagles, wild horses and burros, biota on federal lands, and any biota obtained contrary to state or foreign law and entered into interstate commerce. The tangible property in whole individuals or populations of wild biota species, their parts, and by-products have been the purview of traditional analyses of political economy. When appropriate property right assertions are applied by the holder of wild biota property rights, sustainable mechanisms may be created that connect the potential value of biotechnological discoveries in wild biota to the cost of maintaining that biota.
