Sustainable protection of plants may become of great importance to the development of new medicine, food and industry. According to new research, the business community ought to show greater social responsibility towards the poor countries in which the plants grow, and European governments must tighten legislation.

2011.11.17 | Jesper Toft Madsen

Throughout the last 20-25 years, the world has been experiencing reduced biodiversity, as companies   ruthlessly exploit genetic resources, and plant species become extinct. International laws have been passed to protect plants, regulate the access to them and ensure that the rich countries share the benefits of the utilisation of plants with the poor countries in which the plants grow. The problem is, however, that companies do not adhere to these laws.

- There is a need for stronger legislation that will compel rich, European nations to share the benefits with the developing countries that have rich flora. Today, companies are able to break agreements with developing countries without any serious consequences, and this has an adverse impact on the sustainability of plants, says Abeba Gebreselassie from the Department of Law.

In her PhD dissertation, Abeba Gebreselassie has studied national and international legislation in relation to the sustainability of plants and plant intellectual property rights with focus on Ethiopia and Europe. If companies meet their social responsibility, the poor countries may get the opportunity to invest in plant protection and sustainable utilisation. But according to Abeba Gebreselassie, this requires that governments impose sanctions against those companies that do not share the financial gain with the countries from which the plants derive.

Clash between national interests
Africa, Latin America and Asia are rich in genetic resources, but many of the countries are poor in economic terms. Meanwhile the very opposite applies to the great, European nations, which also have a technological lead. Therefore, the countries have different special interests when it comes to the utilisation of plants.

- The countries promote their own interests. The rich countries want easy access to the plants, while the poor countries want more control and regulation of the rich counties’ access. It is crucial to the survival of biological diversity that both governments and the business community comply with international conventions and pay attention to the interests of the poor countries, says Abeba Gebreselassie.

A step towards imposing tougher sanctions on the companies that do not act in conformity with the conventions is the Nagoya Protocol adopted in 2010, which places focus on benefit sharing between the developing and the industrialised countries. According to Abeba Gebreselassie, another necessary step is to incorporate the sustainability of plants into the economic planning of European countries, into companies’ annual reports and patent rights.

Rich nations prioritise plants
The major challenges of the developing countries in terms of diseases, lack of education and infrastructure overshadow the need for protection of a sustainable flora. Therefore, it is important that economically strong nations become aware of the importance of plants to the future society.

- History has shown that plants are essential to human survival. If the developing countries gain resources for research and protection of the development of plants, our children and grandchildren can enjoy multifarious vegetation, from which it may be possible to develop new types of medicine, food and even entirely new plant species, says Abeba Gebreselassie.

The good example
The Ethiopian vernonia plant – also known as the green plant of the 21st century – was previously regarded as useless weed, but a British company discovered that the plant was highly useful for industrial purposes. Vernonia is rich on a special kind of oil, which is now used in different sectors such as the painting industry, it soothes burnt skin, and unlike many other industrial plants, it does not pollute.

Further information

Abeba Gebreselassie, researcher
Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences
Department of Law

E-mail: abge@asb.dk
Tel.: +45 8948 6861