Granada was in focus this fortnight. The working groups on article 8(j) and on access and benefit-sharing of the convention on biological diversity gathered at this Spanish port town, between January 23 and February 3, 2006. Their mandate was to break the deadlock on the most controversial issue that cbd has faced since its inception: regulating access to genetic resources and ensuring that traditional knowledge bearers of such resources share the benefits of its commercial exploitation.

Not much headway was made though. The convention was up against the giant pharmaceutical and bioprospecting lobby. A 1993 study conducted by James A Duke of Purdue University, usa, shows that more than 50 per cent of the western pharmaceutical products contain some naturally occurring plant derivative or a chemical reconstruction of the same. With the us $490 billion global pharmaceutical industry growing at an annual compounded growth rate of 9 per cent (in 2003) and not being really keen to share its booty, cbd faces tough opponents. The pharmaceutical giants are based mostly in the developed North and the biodiversity hotspots nestled largely in the developing countries in tropics. Therefore the member countries of the convention are squarely divided into strong groupings to protect their national (or corporate, as the case maybe) interests.

The last high The memory of the last ground-breaking negotiations has faded away. It was way back in 2002, when the convention adopted the voluntary