Demanding a paradigm shift in management of biodiversity, and calling for an integrated approach to the whole issue, the noted agriculture scientist MS Swaminathan says that any system should take into consideration the contributions made by the tribals, farmers and village communities and involve them more constructively in the conservation measures.

According to him integrated gene management system has three fundamental functions of conservation, sustainable use and equitable sharing of benefits.In biodiversity conservation, the most important part is played by the communities both in situ- on farm through land races and folk varieties, and ex-situ- on farm through sacred groves.

Conservation is also done by the forest departments through national parks, protected parks, biosphere reserves, world heritage sites and the scientist calls them in situconservation.

The ex-situ conservation is done by government agencies and universities through botanical gardens, zoological gardens and gene banks.

The sustainable use implies location specific selection and seed multiplication, participatory plant breeding (farm family - plant breeder collaboration) and pre-breeding which implies development of novel genetic combinations by scientists for use by grass root plant breeders.

The equitable sharing of benefits involves development of guidelines for bio-partnerships. The three important elements of this sharing are individual benefits, code of conduct and community benefits.

The individuals engaged in `sui generis' system of varietal protection needs to be recognised and rewarded.

The code of conduct should ensure prior informed consent of the individual or community plant breeders and maintenance of community biodiversity register.

The community has to be supported by setting gene funds and by strengthening in situ conservation traditions. The otherbenefits of biodiversity management and conservation for the community should be in contract cultivation of local strains of food and medicinal plants and enlisting commercialisation as an ally in conservation.

In order to ensure ethics and equity in biodiversity conservation, Swaminathan says that India should fight for changes in the global intellectual property regime to secure recognition for indigenous knowledge and protection for rights of farmers and breeders at the Seattle round of WTO negotiations later this month.

According to him, the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) should be amended to introduce bioethical principles in it. With the support of other developing countries, India should seek to integrate into TRIPS the provisions in the Convention on Biodiversity to protect the intellectual property of local communities from biopiracy.

The WTO Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) should be expanded to cover recognition to indigenous knowledge, while the Union for theProtection of New Varieties (UPOV) should include protection of farmers' and breeders' rights.

Swaminathan expects that the centre would accord priority to bringing in a legislation on plant variety protection and farmers' rights protection.About the need for proper recognition for indigenous knowledge, he says companies which commercialised `medicinal plants' might say tribal communities who knew about their efficacy were able to do so merely because they lived in places where these plants grew.

However, they forget that in nature they were all just plants until their medicinal properties were identified by local communities. This involved a process of observation, selection and verification by the tribal people.The concept of `biopiracy' should give way to `biopartnership' so that those who exploited resources are part of the conservation efforts along with state agencies.

All these issues were discussed at length at four-day seminar at the MS Swaminathan Foundation here in the first week of Novemberin which participants from Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Vietnam and Philippines were present.