How Kew Works to Restore Natural Resources

How Kew works to restore natural resources

George Marshall makes some important points about the return of profits from the exploitation of rain forest genetic material to the countries and peoples who have a true stake in the forest and its natural resources. He also goes on to suggest, unfairly, that "Kew will continue to be yet another agent involved in the commercial plundering of these forests." I would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight.

The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew is committed to the principle that, if wealth should be created directly by ourselves in association with commercial partners (such as in the development of pharmaceuticals following the screening of plants for biological activity), then we will share that portion due to Kew with the country from which the plants were collected. This is written into binding agreements with those countries with whom we are working.

For the past 20 years the sovereignty of our partner nations over their germplasm has been recognised by us. Material has been collected only with the explicit permission of their responsible national authorities and our collecting missions have usually been carried out in direct collaboration with their scientists. The more difficult problem and the one which Mr Marshall, indirectly, addresses is - what can Kew do to prevent an unwitting involvement in the supply of material to third parties who then use it commercially?

Even before the Rio convention and its ratification within the European Community, (which has yet to take place), RBG Kew had, as a condition of supply, retained the rights to any wealth created by others from seed distributed from its seed bank. the net revenues received can then be shared with the country of origin.

In this way we bring both the direct and indirect commercial exploitation of our genetic stocks into line. Our collecting practices already exceed those laid down in the convention.

Far from plundering the natural resources of other countries, Kew is an institution active in the restoration of those resources through our programme of propagating rare and endangered species and repatriating them to the countries from which they came.