South Africa's Bioprospecting, Access and Benefit-Sharing ...

(e.g. national government departments such as the Department of Transport, municipalities, SANParks,
provincial reserves), botanical gardens, holders of ex-situ collections (e.g. museums, universities, genebanks,
herbaria), or other countries through their National Competent Authority.
Providers of traditional knowledge: In most cases an indigenous community will be the provider of
traditional knowledge but the Biodiversity Act also specifies that an individual can be the provider of
traditional knowledge.
2.3 The distinction between the discovery phase
and the commercialisation phase
It is important to be aware that benefits will be different at the different phases of bioprospecting.
The Biodiversity Act distinguishes between the discovery phase and commercialisation phase of
bioprospecting. The discovery phase is when scientists are trying to find out if there is any potential in
the indigenous biological resource that could be further developed into a commercial product. The
commercialisation phase is when something with commercial potential has already been identified in
the indigenous biological resource. It is difficult to know what benefits will arise from the discovery phase
because the commercial viability is not yet known. However, as a provider, you could decide to provide
your traditional knowledge and/or indigenous biological resources on condition that you share in some
benefits that would be negotiated.
Guidelines for providers
SECTION 2
2.4 Access to indigenous biological resources
and knowledge
Reasons for users wanting to have access to the biological resources on your land
Indigenous biological resources are used as important ingredients by many different industries. These
ingredients may form part of medicines, cosmetics, foods with health benefits (called functional foods),
herbal food supplements, or dyes and other chemicals. In such cases the indigenous biological resources
are used for their medicinal or other properties. However, researchers spend a long time isolating these
properties and testing them for safety and efficacy before products reach the shelves.
Your land may contain interesting indigenous biological resources for bioprospecting. You have the
right to control access to the resources on your land. Nobody can have access to your land without
first getting your informed consent. This means that any user who wants to have access to your land
and collect any resource that occurs on your land will first have to get your permission and give you
information about what they plan to do with the resources and what the expected outcomes are. If you
own the land communally then you, along with your community, will have to decide whether you will
allow the bioprospector to have access to your land and its resources.
If the resource that is collected is used for bioprospecting, a bioprospector has to share some of the
benefits that might be generated. There are a number of ways in which this might happen, for example
through fees or community development projects (see APPENDIX 3 for more information).
Reasons for users wanting to have access to your traditional knowledge
There are a great variety of plants, animals and other organisms in the natural environment, not all
with medicinal or other properties. Often it takes a long time to identify the useful resources and their
properties. Many indigenous communities have a deep understanding of the value of the plants and
animals in their local ecosystems and use these resources for many purposes, including as medicine, and
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