International Regulation of Information: Intellectual Property Rights and Biodiversity Conservation

Abstract

The issue addressed in this chapter is whether there is a direct, market-driven response available for addressing the core problem of non-appropriable flows from diverse resources. That is, is there an instrument capable of rendering non-appropriable values appropriable? If there is, it would be of the nature of the regime known as intellectual property rights (IPR), and so the question becomes one of determining the applicability of this regime to the object of biodiversity conservation.