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A dynamic economic model for a biodiversity prospecting contract, between a host country and a pharmaceutical company, is developed and used to explain the structure of existing contracts. The host country's stocks of biodiversity and genetic information are crucial inputs to the production of high-quality samples. Even with compete property rights contracts will be second best; it is not possible to perfectly monitor host-country inputs to the drug discovery process. Contracts vary due to the different degrees of observability of host-country inputs, and incomplete or ineffective property rights.

Explores the impact of bioprospecting projects on the struggle for self-definition & self-determination among indigenous peoples. Bioprospecting is described as seeking natural compounds & genetic material for commercial pharmaceutical, agricultural, & industrial use by extracting traditional knowledge from indigenous peoples. Although the extractors claim their indigenous "collaborators" will receive an equitable share of the benefits if their knowledge contributes to a commercial product, indigenous people have protested against the appropriation of their environmental & natural resources. The intricate link between indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants, healing practices, & belief systems is explored. Many cultures consider medicinal knowledge a gift given to the healer rather than a "right," & the healer is bound by specific rites, rituals, & obligations. Removal of indigenous knowledge from its cultural context has led to various attempts by indigenous peoples to increase control over their land, resources, culture, & identities. Specific examples are described & attention is called to the distinction between indigenous peoples' self-definitions as stewards & the imposition of that role by outsiders. J. Lindroth

Addressing a worldwide concern, the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio provided the first global regulatory consortium dealing with the plight of genetic resources. However, far from settling concerns, the ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) sparked numerous debates coalescing around the proprietary use and control of genetic resources. Some contend it is the subsequent phrasing and adoption of the term genetic resources by the CBD protocols that framed genetic or biochemical material and information in the context of an "exchangeable commodity," thereby conflating the value of genetic materials to that of a commodity to be captured, extracted and manipulated similar to previous forest-based natural resources (e.g., high-value timber, charcoal). Genetic resources are similar in ways to forest-based commodities by the spatial configurations they both share. But researchers theorizing natural resources note that it is the "different properties and commodity characteristics" that shape the processes according to which labor and value are appropriated for the distribution of benefits (Peluso and Watts, 2001:26). My research question focuses on how the material (biophysical and social) characteristics of genetic resources shape the spatial and temporal dimensions of bioprospecting in Madagascar. As my point of departure, I have constructed a three-part resource typology of plants that were once or are currently being extracted from Madagascar for biomedical uses. This resource typology follows the temporal stages leading to commercialization. These different stages of commercialization include: (1) non-articulated (early stage- relies on the biological material), (2) semi-articulated (intermediate stage- semi-synthetic) and, (3) fully articulated (most advanced stage- have isolated the compound for chemical synthesis). For this research, I will employ a Commodity Chain Analysis (CCA) to follow the relations of each of the types of resources included in the typology. With the use of a CCA, I will investigate the chain of relations including the prospecting or exploration, production/collection, transport and exchange of genetic resources. The product of this research will be helpful by those evaluating the relevance of current Access and Benefit Sharing protocols (ABS), and the application of more efficient distributive mechanisms.