Chapter 02 · Nature, land & waterBiodiversity & Nature
Bioprospecting
Definition
The exploration of biodiversity for commercially valuable genetic resources and biochemicals — the search for plants, animals and microbial species for pharmaceutical, biotechnological, agricultural and industrial purposes, including the collection of associated traditional knowledge from local communities. Intent to commercialise is what distinguishes bioprospecting from pure scientific collection.
References
Definition; four-phase process; NCI screening programmes; efficiency of traditional-knowledge-guided collection; biopiracy boundary.
Commercial-intent definition; scope (all organisms plus traditional knowledge); overharvesting risk.
Overview
What it means
Bioprospecting typically proceeds through phases: on-site collection; culturing and isolation of compounds; screening for specific uses; and product development, including patenting and marketing.
Natural products remain foundational to drug discovery — analyses of FDA approvals find that around half of approved drugs are natural products or their derivatives — which gives biodiverse regions an "option value" as libraries of evolved chemistry.
How it is used
Governed today by the CBD and Nagoya Protocol's access-and-benefit-sharing rules: legitimate bioprospecting requires prior informed consent and mutually agreed benefit-sharing with provider countries and communities. Programmes range from national institutes' screening collections (e. g. , the US NCI's Natural Product Repository) to commercial agreements like the historic Merck–INBio deal in Costa Rica.
Why it matters
Bioprospecting is the commercial frontier of the biodiversity economy: managed well, it finances conservation and rewards traditional knowledge; managed badly, it becomes biopiracy. The distinction is a core governance test for nature-positive business.