Compensating local communities for conserving biodiversity: how much, who will, how and when
1999
A.K. Gupta
Large number of local communities across the world have shared unhesitatingly their knowledge about local biodiversity and its different uses with outsiders including researchers, corporations, gene collectors and of course, activists. Many continue to share despite knowing that by withholding this knowledge they could receive pecuniary advantage. As if sharing was not enough, large number of herbalists do not even accept any compensation when offered. In some cases they have cultural and spiritual taboos against receiving compensation because of the fear that effectiveness of their knowledge would cease if they received any payment for it. Some insist on a transfer payment or some kind of offering to be made to birds, dogs, other animals or just to nature if the given remedy worked successfully. There are cases when the scale of offering is proportional to the capacity of the person being helped and not the degree of help. In such a case the people are not opposed to charging for their services. It is just that they are not charging for themselves. The cultures that put restrictions on being materially compensated may in fact have mechanisms of compensation but favoring nature and the other sentient beings. It is in this backdrop of ethical and ecological concerns of local communities and herbalists that we have to discuss the issue of recognizing, respecting, and rewarding the contribution of local communities. [author]
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