As a result, commercial use of these resources provided no additional economic incentive for conservation. It thus enables market incentives to be used to complement the various multilateral mechanisms that might directly fund biodiversity conservation. The Convention adopted the principle that a portion of the benefits stemming from the productive use of genetic resources should flow back to the nations that act to conserve and provide access to these resources. Although the economic value associated with the transfer of genetic and biochemical materials is often exaggerated, effective mechanisms for dealing with these transfers and ensuring equity in the distribution of the benefits should nevertheless be a priority. Equity in the distribution of the benefits from these resources will be the standard against which international measures are judged.
Several problems confront any such mechanism.
Second, mechanisms that make sense for the use of chemicals in the pharmaceutical industry may not make sense for the use of genetic resources in agriculture and medicine. There is no particular difficulty associated with tracking the development of a drug from a plant or animal extract. Countries could readily establish access regulations requiring contracts that stipulate royalties, technology transfer, and conservation requirements whenever chemical extracts are exported. Though it is possible for companies to evade the terms of such contracts, most would not consider it worth the risk, given the relatively low royalty rates typical for such agreements to begin with. On the other hand gene transfers present major monitoring problems.