ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the manifestation of the belief in genetic gold in a series of prescriptive texts, technical and policy manuals, and strategy papers of the 1990s. It examines the early ‘biodiversity as biological resources’ problematizations of the World Bank, the celebrated National Biodiversity Institute (INBio)-Merck arrangement, the bioprospecting, which is regarded in the literature as ground zero for the rush. The World Bank, which was one of the first global institutions to enthusiastically embrace sustainable development, rose to the challenge of providing guidance regarding the management of biodiversity as a resource. The first major outcome of its engagement in the biodiversity field was a collaboration between the World Bank and Northern Environmental Non-Governmental Organisation, which produced a jointly prepared report entitled Conserving the World’s Biological Diversity. In 1990, Costa Rica established the INBio as an organization separate from the ministry engaging in bioprospecting-related activities, namely ‘biodiversity inventorying and monitoring, bioinformatics, education and bioliteracy, wildland management and bioprospecting’.
