ABSTRACT
The need to combine conservation and sustainable utilization of biodiversity was one of the central themes of the Earth Summit at Rio (June 1992). The Convention on Biodiversity attracted substantial publicity, but in fact was initially conceived a decade before the Earth Summit. The germ of the idea was planted by the World Conservation Union in the 1970s and later promoted by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). The central theme of the Convention is a statement of the importance of biological resources and the need for their sustainable use, rather than just conservation. Interestingly, emphasis is placed both on the ownership of biological resources and the indigenous knowledge that may help their utilization. The Convention states the:
desirability of sharing equitably benefits arising from the use of traditional knowledge, innovations and practices relevant to the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of its components
Convention on Biodiversity