Dr Edwards said today that the most important commodity on the world market in coming decades will be information. Information flowing freely across international borders allows governments to make better decisions about conservation of the world's biological heritage. It allows scientists to make better predictions about the environment. It advances science. The Working Group is focussing on the areas of neuroscience, biodiversity and intellectual property rights.
Biodiversity is too big a subject for one or even one group of researchers.
There is a great deal of data around from individual researchers. This information needs to be catalogued on computer databases that can become part of networks to which other scientists can gain access.