遗传资源获取与惠益分享: 背景、进展与挑战

本文回顾了《生物多样性公约》(CBD)有关遗传资源获取与惠益分享(access and benefit sharing, ABS)问题的谈判背景, 介绍了ABS问题特设工作组的工作历程。对《公约》第8次缔约方大会以来有关ABS问题的谈判进展进行了详细的分析, 特别是有关遗传资源来源证书制度的讨论与成果, 进而对当前ABS问题面临的挑战进行了分析研究, 包括国际层面上WTO体系和世界知识产权组织(WIPO)体系与CBD之间在遗传资源及相关传统知识在知识产权问题上的冲突, 国家层面上ABS问题的立法需求与焦点问题, 以及在确定遗传资源来源和实施惠益分享方面的技术限制等。     

生物多样性相关传统知识的国际保护及中国应对策略

数个国际多边协定、政府间组织和机构都涉及生物多样性相关的传统知识, 包括《生物多样性公约》(CBD)、关于遗传资源获取与惠益分享的《名古屋议定书》(NP)、《粮食和农业植物遗传资源国际条约》(ITPGRFA)、世界知识产权组织(WIPO)、世贸组织下的《与贸易相关的知识产权协定》(WTO/TRIPS)以及生物多样性与生态系统服务政府间科学-政策平台(IPBES)等。然而, 各个国际文书所界定的传统知识内涵和外延却有所区别和侧重。中国是生物多样性极为丰富的多民族大国, 各族人民在数千年的生产和生活实践中创造了丰富的与保护和持续利用生物遗传资源相关的传统知识、创新和实践做法。作为多个相关国际公约或协定的缔约方, 中国应厘清各相关国际公约或协定中生物多样性相关传统知识的内涵、保护目标及国际义务, 加强国家在履行相关国际公约或协定过程中的协同增效, 从而在相关传统知识的国际谈判中统一立场, 维护国家及地方社区利益。本文系统梳理了各相关国际多边协定、组织和机构对于传统知识的界定, 以及国际多边体系在保护遗传资源相关传统知识方面的工作, 根据中国遗传资源相关传统知识的现状和已有的措施, 结合当前履行国际多边协定的大背景, 提出了促进中国生物多样性相关传统知识保护的5项具体建议, 包括: (1)采取立法、行政和政策措施; (2)加强相关研究, 强化技术支撑; (3)加强传统知识保护的能力建设; (4)在国内履约过程中, 强化传统知识相关工作的协调; (5)在国际层面上加强中国传统知识的宣传力度。     

Taxonomic minimalism

Biological surveys are in increasing demand while taxonomic resources continue to decline. How much formal taxonomy is required to get the job done? The answer depends on the kind of job but it is possible that taxonomic minimalism, especially (1) the use of higher taxonomic ranks, (2) the use of morphospecies rather than species (as identified by Latin binomials), and (3) the involvement of taxonomic specialists only for training and verification, may offer advantages for biodiversity assessment, environmental monitoring and ecological research. As such, formal taxonomy remains central to the process of biological inventory and survey but resources may be allocated more efficiently. For example, if formal Identification is not required, resources may be concentrated on replication and increasing sample sizes. Taxonomic minimalism may also facilitate the inclusion in these activities of important but neglected groups, especially among the invertebrates, and perhaps even microorganisms.     

云南省第一批省级重点保护野生植物名录修订

保护植物名录是林政执法、科学研究、公众参与生物多样性保护等活动的重要工具。修订对于保持名录上植物名称准确性和使名录及时反映我省生物多样性保护成效具有重要意义。本文依据英文版《中国植物志》和植物名称数据库,对云南省政府1989年颁布的《云南省第一批省级重点保护野生植物名录》进行了修订。结果表明：名录上214种植物中有60种是异名或基名,28种原中文名称被改变了,9种原拉丁名称拼写错误,3种错误鉴定,5种是裸名,其他109种植物拉丁名和中文名都无变化。修订结果将为云南省重点保护野生植物管理提供参考。最后建议建立云南省重点保护野生植物名录修订标准和机制。     

生物技术产业的知识产权保护和管理

知识产权是一种重要的财产权,它对于一个国家的经济发展和产业进步有着举足轻重的作用。本文探讨了生物技术产业可能涉及的知识产权保护,并着重讨论了其中的专利保护问题,在分析了我国生物技术产业发展知识产权保护的不足之后,指出应加强生物技术产业的知识产权保护意义,健全相应的管理体系,以充分做好生物技术产业的知识产权保护和管理工作,推动我国生物技术产业的健康发展。     

The faunal drugstore: Animal-based remedies used in traditional medicines in Latin America

Zootherapy is the treatment of human ailments with remedies made from animals and their products. Despite its prevalence in traditional medical practices worldwide, research on this phenomenon has often been neglected in comparison to medicinal plant research. This review discusses some related aspects of the use of animal-based remedies in Latin America, identifies those species used as folk remedies, and discusses the implications of zootherapy for public health and biological conservation. The review of literature revealed that at least 584 animal species, distributed in 13 taxonomic categories, have been used in traditional medicine in region. The number of medicinal species catalogued was quite expansive and demonstrates the importance of zootherapy as an alternative mode of therapy in Latin America. Nevertheless, this number is certainly underestimated since the number of studies on the theme are very limited. Animals provide the raw materials for remedies prescribed clinically and are also used in the form of amulets and charms in magic-religious rituals and ceremonies. Zootherapeutic resources were used to treat different diseases. The medicinal fauna is largely based on wild animals, including some endangered species. Besides being influenced by cultural aspects, the relations between humans and biodiversity in the form of zootherapeutic practices are conditioned by the social and economic relations between humans themselves. Further ethnopharmacological studies are necessary to increase our understanding of the links between traditional uses of faunistic resources and conservation biology, public health policies, sustainable management of natural resources and bio-prospecting.     

我国转基因水稻产业化中的知识产权问题——对“遭遇国外专利陷阱”的回应

摘要：转基因水稻的产业化对缓解我国乃至世界的粮食危机和对保障我国的粮食安全都有重要的意义,而知识产权作为转基因水稻产业化进程中的基础性问题一直得到广泛的关注,尤其是关于我国是否会遭遇专利陷阱的问题。通过对我国知识产权制度以及所进行的转基因水稻专利检索数据的分析来看,转基因水稻的产业化并不会使我国遭遇专利陷阱,专利侵权的指控也并不存;但在整个产业化进程中,为保障转基因水稻知识产权的良性发展,还应当从如何促进技术优势转化为产业优势、如何对国外专利技术加以运用、如何维护稻农利益以及如何加强知识产权行政保护和司法保护等方面加以完善。     

Colombia,an unknown genetic diversity in the era of Big Data

Background

Latin America harbors some of the most biodiverse countries in the world, including Colombia. Despite the increasing use of cutting-edge technologies in genomics and bioinformatics in several biological science fields around the world, the region has fallen behind in the inclusion of these approaches in biodiversity studies. In this study, we used data mining methods to search in four main public databases of genetic sequences such as: NCBI Nucleotide and BioProject, Pathosystems Resource Integration Center, and Barcode of Life Data Systems databases. We aimed to determine how much of the Colombian biodiversity is contained in genetic data stored in these public databases and how much of this information has been generated by national institutions. Additionally, we compared this data for Colombia with other countries of high biodiversity in Latin America, such as Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Peru.

Results

In Nucleotide, we found that 66.84% of total records for Colombia have been published at the national level, and this data represents less than 5% of the total number of species reported for the country. In BioProject, 70.46% of records were generated by national institutions and the great majority of them is represented by microorganisms. In BOLD Systems, 26% of records have been submitted by national institutions, representing 258 species for Colombia. This number of species reported for Colombia span approximately 0.46% of the total biodiversity reported for the country (56,343 species). Finally, in PATRIC database, 13.25% of the reported sequences were contributed by national institutions. Colombia has a better biodiversity representation in public databases in comparison to other Latin American countries, like Costa Rica and Peru. Mexico and Argentina have the highest representation of species at the national level, despite Brazil and Colombia, which actually hold the first and second places in biodiversity worldwide.

Conclusions

Our findings show gaps in the representation of the Colombian biodiversity at the molecular and genetic levels in widely consulted public databases. National funding for high-throughput molecular research, NGS technologies costs, and access to genetic resources are limiting factors. This fact should be taken as an opportunity to foster the development of collaborative projects between research groups in the Latin American region to study the vast biodiversity of these countries using ‘omics’ technologies.

     

Review: intellectual property aspects of plant transformation

One of the recurring themes of the debates concerning the application of genetic transformation technology has been the role of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). This term covers both the content of patents and the confidential expertise usually related to methodology and referred to as 'Trade Secrets'. This review explains the concepts behind patent protection, and discusses the wide-ranging scope of existing patents that cover all aspects of transgenic technology, from selectable markers and novel promoters to methods of gene introduction. Although few of the patents in this area have any real commercial value, there are a small number of key patents that restrict the 'freedom to operate' of new companies seeking to exploit the methods. Over the last 20 years, these restrictions have forced extensive cross-licensing between ag-biotech companies and have been one of the driving forces behind the consolidation of these companies. Although such issues are often considered of little interest to the academic scientist working in the public sector, they are of great importance in any discussion of the role of 'public-good breeding' and of the relationship between the public and private sectors.     

中国履行《生物多样性公约》二十年: 行动、进展与展望

1992年6月联合国环境与发展大会(UNCED)通过了具有里程碑意义的《生物多样性公约》, 至今已经20年。在此期间, 中国1993年建立了履行《公约》的国家协调机制, 1995-1997年实施了“中国生物多样性国情研究”, 2007-2010年编制了《中国生物多样性保护国家战略与行动计划》, 2011年建立了“中国生物多样性保护国家委员会”, 并针对《生物多样性公约》的目标, 实施了多项生物多样性研究和保护行动, 包括森林、草原、荒漠、湿地、海洋等自然生态系统保护; 物种资源调查、编目、数据库建设以及珍稀濒危物种保护; 外来入侵种防治与转基因生物生态风险评估等。同时, 在生物多样性本底查明、监测体系建立、就地保护、遗传资源获取与惠益分享、传统知识的保护与应用等方面还存在很多挑战, 为此, 本文有针对性地提出了区域生物多样性本底查明、就地保护和遗传资源及相关传统知识获取与惠益分享等未来重点研究方向。     

Assessment of management practices regarding genetic biodiversity in Baltic Sea marine protected areas

The aim of this study is to examine, and tentatively explain, how genetic biodiversity is handled in the management of Baltic Sea Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Genetic biodiversity is critical for species’ adaptation to changing environmental conditions and is protected by international agreements. Nevertheless, recent research indicates that genetic biodiversity is neglected in marine environments and in the management of MPAs. This study focuses on Sweden and Finland, which together govern a substantial part of Baltic Sea MPAs, and builds on in-depth interviews with regional conservation managers that are responsible for establishing and managing these areas. The empirical findings confirm that genetic biodiversity is absent, or plays a minor role, in contemporary MPA management. The findings also provide several possible explanations to this situation: unclear understandings of formal policy, lack of resources, deficient knowledge base, and the managers’ own policy beliefs. Policy makers and high-level managers need to consider these aspects in their efforts to protect biodiversity.     

Role of traditional knowledge in marine bioprospecting

The “marine world” is endowed with diverse life forms. The life under the oceans is bestowed with a unique gene pool and characteristics owing to extreme conditions such as high salt concentration and temperature variations. The marine biodiversity is an extremely rich resource for the development of a wide array of applications in food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics. Various forms of traditional knowledge, including traditional medicinal knowledge, have been silently developing over the centuries, with the coastal tribes in nations across the globe. Unfortunately, marine traditional knowledge has been underestimated both commercially and legally. It has still not gained its due importance at the international platform for sustainable use and development. An attempt has been made in the present study to collate information on marine traditional knowledge based medicine. Recent trends of marine bioprospecting by various nations including India have been discussed, followed by the study of legal provisions dealing with marine bioprospecting that aim at conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity and associated traditional knowledge. Convention of Biological Diversity, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas and World Intellectual Property Organization are the major international legal instruments that discuss the concepts of Prior Informed Consent, access and benefit sharing with regard to biopiracy and provide guidelines and limits for conducting marine scientific research.     

Data exchange gaps in knowledge of biodiversity: implications for the management and conservation of Biosphere Reserves

The knowledge of species occurrence within an area is crucial to develop proper conservation strategies to protect species diversity. Biosphere Reserves (BRs), established to preserve biodiversity and sustainably use their resources, should therefore have precise information of its biodiversity. We compared and evaluated information on threatened and non-threatened vertebrate species available for Spanish BRs from three sources: management documents (MDs), the Global Biodiversity Information Facility index (GBIF), and atlases and red books. Our results suggest that information from any one source was rather partial, to a degree that depended on which vertebrate group was considered. Management documents did list a high percentage of threatened species found in BRs, reaching up to the total number of species of birds and mammals. Species lists overlap between all three sources ranged from 59 % for fish to 84 % for mammals. In addition, there is an inconsistency between national and international threatened species categories and it should thus call for revisions. Even though the information of non-threatened and threatened species occurrence in MDs of Spanish BRs is good, it is necessary to pay attention to amphibian and fish species which are less recorded.     

Towards a global terrestrial species monitoring program

The Convention on Biological Diversity's strategic plan lays out five goals: “(A) address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society; (B) reduce the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use; (C) improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity; (D) enhance the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services; (E) enhance implementation through participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building.” To meet and inform on the progress towards these goals, a globally coordinated approach is needed for biodiversity monitoring that is linked to environmental data and covers all biogeographic regions. During a series of workshops and expert discussions, we identified nine requirements that we believe are necessary for developing and implementing such a global terrestrial species monitoring program. The program needs to design and implement an integrated information chain from monitoring to policy reporting, to create and implement minimal data standards and common monitoring protocols to be able to inform Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs), and to develop and optimize semantics and ontologies for data interoperability and modelling. In order to achieve this, the program needs to coordinate diverse but complementary local nodes and partnerships. In addition, capacities need to be built for technical tasks, and new monitoring technologies need to be integrated. Finally, a global monitoring program needs to facilitate and secure funding for the collection of long-term data and to detect and fill gaps in under-observed regions and taxa. The accomplishment of these nine requirements is essential in order to ensure data is comprehensive, to develop robust models, and to monitor biodiversity trends over large scales. A global terrestrial species monitoring program will enable researchers and policymakers to better understand the status and trends of biodiversity.     

A Biodiversity Indicators Dashboard: Addressing Challenges to Monitoring Progress towards the Aichi Biodiversity Targets Using Disaggregated Global Data

Recognizing the imperiled status of biodiversity and its benefit to human well-being, the world''s governments committed in 2010 to take effective and urgent action to halt biodiversity loss through the Convention on Biological Diversity''s “Aichi Targets”. These targets, and many conservation programs, require monitoring to assess progress toward specific goals. However, comprehensive and easily understood information on biodiversity trends at appropriate spatial scales is often not available to the policy makers, managers, and scientists who require it. We surveyed conservation stakeholders in three geographically diverse regions of critical biodiversity concern (the Tropical Andes, the African Great Lakes, and the Greater Mekong) and found high demand for biodiversity indicator information but uneven availability. To begin to address this need, we present a biodiversity “dashboard” – a visualization of biodiversity indicators designed to enable tracking of biodiversity and conservation performance data in a clear, user-friendly format. This builds on previous, more conceptual, indicator work to create an operationalized online interface communicating multiple indicators at multiple spatial scales. We structured this dashboard around the Pressure-State-Response-Benefit framework, selecting four indicators to measure pressure on biodiversity (deforestation rate), state of species (Red List Index), conservation response (protection of key biodiversity areas), and benefits to human populations (freshwater provision). Disaggregating global data, we present dashboard maps and graphics for the three regions surveyed and their component countries. These visualizations provide charts showing regional and national trends and lay the foundation for a web-enabled, interactive biodiversity indicators dashboard. This new tool can help track progress toward the Aichi Targets, support national monitoring and reporting, and inform outcome-based policy-making for the protection of natural resources.     

遗传资源获取和利益分享与知识产权保护

随着人类对遗传资源开发利用程度的加剧、物种资源不断减少以及国际交流合作的日益频繁,遗传资源获取和利益分享中的知识产权问题日益受到国际社会的关注。为了保护和持续利用遗传资源,本文根据《生物多样性公约》第15条的规定,以及国际社会在遗传资源获取和利益分享方面的做法,分析了我国遗传资源保护和利用以及知识产权保护的现状,提出建立和完善保护遗传资源知识产权的专利制度,遗传资源的管理制度以及遗传资源保护和利用的市场化机制等管理措施,最后,对中国和阿根廷NIDERA公司在大豆遗传资源交换,合作研究和利益分享的案例进行了分析。     

Identification of gene-related Korean patents and construction of a database server for Korean patent sequences

With the advent of high-throughput techniques, the number of patent applications containing biological sequences has been increasing rapidly in Korea. However, there is little information on gene relatedness of the Korean patent sequences. The primary aims of this study are two-fold. First, we associated Korean patent applications with genes. Second, we have constructed a database server, named Patome@Korea, to provide the gene-patent map and the Korean patent data containing biological sequences. To associate the sequences with genes, we have received patent sequence data from the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and annotated them with RefSeq and Entrez Gene. Through the association analysis, we found that nearly 14.7% of human genes were related to Korean patenting, compared to 25% of human genes in the US patent. We have consolidated the association results and the patent sequence data to a relational database and implemented a web-based user interface to provide search service. The database can be queried using application number, applicant, titles, gene ID/name, and RefSeq number. We also provide web-based BLAST facility to allow users to compare their sequences against patent sequences. Equal contribution.     

The Legislation for Biodiversity Conservation in China

Effectivebiodiverdityconservationneedsasoundlegalsystemthatincludesthelegisla-tionininternational,nationalandlocallevels.TheConventiononBiologicalDiversity(CBD)thatenteredintoforceonDecember29,1993,isaninternationallegalinstrument.Asaframeconvention,ithasformedalegalsystem,togetherwiththeotherinternationalagree-mentssuchastheConventiononWetlandsofInternationalImportanceEspeciallyasWater-fowlHabitat(Ramsar1971),theConventionConcerningtheProtectionoftheWorldCul-turalandNaturalHeritage(P…     

Checklist of the ants (Hymenoptera,Formicidae) of the Solomon Islands and a new survey of Makira Island

The intent of this paper is to facilitate future research of the Solomon Islands ant fauna by providing the first comprehensively researched species inventory in over 75 years. The species list presented here includes the names of all ant species recorded from the islands that are available in the literature together with specimen records from several museum collections and new records from our 2008 Makira field expedition. All the names of described species presented are valid in accordance with the most recent Formicidae classification. In total, the checklist is composed of 237 species and subspecies (including 30 morphospecies) in 59 genera representing nine subfamilies. We report that the recent field expedition added 67 new species records to Makira and 28 new species records to the Solomon Islands. Our research recovered species occurrence records for 32 individual islands and five island groups. The five islands with the highest number of recorded species are: Makira (142 spp.), Guadalcanal (107 spp.), Malaita (70 spp.), Santa Isabel (68 spp.), and Rennell (66 spp.). Based on our results, we discuss the taxonomic composition of the archipelago’s ant fauna, which islands are most in need of additional sampling, and the importance of establishing biodiversity baselines before environmental threats such as the invasive ant Wasmannia auropunctata cause irrevocable harm to the native biodiversity.