The contentious issue of management, utilisation and conservation of bioresources was sought to be resolved in 1992 with the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at the Rio Summit. The Convention is an important tool of diplomacy, termed "biodiplomacy" by the editors of this interesting compilation on the different facets of the Agreement.

The book analyses the delicate structure around which the Convention is framed: conservation of biological diversity, regulated access to genetic resources, access to and transfer of technology and international equity. However, arriving at a consensus was not easy because of the divergent viewpoints about whether natural resources are a common heritage of mankind or the sovereign property of nations. With the signing of the Convention and subsequent ratification in December 1993, the States' sovereignty over their genetic resources was affirmed.

But the Convention did not identify and institute appropriate mechanisms to implement it at national levels. This is the area targeted by this book, and the inputs from various environmental and NGO activists convey the urgency required in putting words into action. The underlying message is that given the far-reaching obligations of the Convention, it will be foolish on the part of the signatory countries to hope to implement them under a set of all-embracing legal regulations.

Interestingly, the book traces the relationship between the CBD and other related international agreements; and suggests that coordination between these treaties--e.g. cites convention on flora and fauna or the Bonn Convention on migratory species etc--could provide a basis for fulfilling the end objective of biodiversity conservation.

With increasing global interdependence, the boundaries between the polity, the economy and the environment are getting blurred and the areas of conflict too are overlapping. The authors talk about the potential area of conflict between the Convention and international trade regimes. For most countries, the gains from international trade are too attractive to forego even at the cost of resource exploitation.

At another level are ethical questions about the use and trade of genetically modified organisms or the issues connected with biotechnology vis-a-vis indigenous knowledge. While nations continue to debate and discuss the best possible ways to implement the Convention, the onslaught on the earth's ecosystem continues, the indigenous communities lose out a bit more on their traditional knowledge due to theft by commercial prospectors, and the unequal balance of (environmental) power between the developed and the developing world continues unchanged. The editors have adopted a moderate approach in concluding their thesis, but the facts are in stark black and white.