The commercial exploitation of South Africa’s remarkable biological diversity is taking place in a ”policy and legal vacuum”, says Environmental Affairs Minister Valli Moosa.
This was among the reasons for the development of the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Bill, he said in a written reply to a parliamentary question, tabled on Tuesday.
The draft legislation is set to come before Cabinet next week, and is expected to be promulgated before the end of this year. Moosa said the absence of national legislation had, in the past, led to difficulties in regulating biodiversity prospecting
arrangements.
”Of concern is the fact that present activities concerning the export and use of South Africa’s biodiversity are virtually uncontrolled, and that commercial exploitation of the country’s genetic resources is taking place in a policy and legal vacuum.”
Among the aims of the biodiversity bill was the regulation of bioprospecting — the search for genetic plant material to benefit commerce and industry — involving indigenous biological resources.
Another was ensuring ”the equitable sharing of benefits” arising from the commercialisation of traditional uses or knowledge of indigenous biological resources.
Moosa said South Africa was ”an attractive venture for companies seeking novel compounds with medical, agricultural, horticultural or environmental applications”.
This stemmed from the country’s extraordinary wealth of biological diversity.
”Approximately 80% of between 18 000 and 20 000 plant species are known to be endemic.
”Intra-specific genetic variation is unusually high, adding to the potential for developing new drugs, crop varieties, forages, ornamental plants and other useful products.
”South African biological diversity thus represents a resource which is not available anywhere else in the world,” he said. – Sapa