Biota Property Rights for Australia

Abstract

In Asia and Oceania, the commodification of natural resources such as water and now biota, has resulted in changes to fundamental understandings of property rights. The interplay between modernity and customary rights to natural resources has brought starkly into focus quite different values ascribed to property rights, all of which are nevertheless expressions of worth. The paper describes how the increasing use of biota such as genetic botanicals has raised issues of regulation and property rights, if such natural resources are to be conserved, and yet sustainably exploited. At a fundamental level the increasing recognition of neophyte property rights in natural resources such as biota has caused the notion of property rights in common law countries such as Australia and elsewhere, to undergo fundamental change. The outcome of interactions between different forms of institutions of property is only now being dimly understood. Groundbreaking research by the authors into the conceiving of biota property rights underpins much of this paper, providing possible guideposts for the development of a more appropriate and inclusive approach to such rights.