Since this is new territory, we will have to learn as we go along. She does foresee fierce resistance from commercial users about paying up. The argument is echoed by Pachauri, who points out that the National Biodiversity Fund would have to support the right kind of activities ranging from support of the right kinds of non-governmental organizations working in ecologically fragile areas and biodiversity hotspots as well as in research and development. Sahai says the fund is meant to receive components of the benefits that are shared. Its purpose is not to conserve but reward.
Conservation is to be effected through the other clauses.
Arogyapacha, a medicinal plant of the Kani tribal people, has fatigue-reducing properties. Their benefit-sharing experiments went haywire primarily because of the interference of the state bureaucracy, he argues. Swaminathan is of the view that the board should be endowed with the capacity to monitor bioprospecting agreements and ensure that genuine biopartnerships are fostered and biopiracy is prevented. Daniels, on the other hand, warns that since bioprospecting is a complex and still unclear proposition, a single authority might not be able it. Pachauri says a specialist organization must first prepare a blueprint, and the issue must first be debated and discussed before such a board is set up.