Industrial applications for biotechnology opportunities for developing countries: opportunities for developing countries
Juma, C.; Konde, V.
Environment 44(6): 35
2002
ISSN/ISBN: 0013-9157 Document Number: 266049
The ability of developing countries to play a significant role in the wider application of modern biotechnologies is reviewed. The confluence of modern biotechnologies and the market niches they occupy can be described as the new bioeconomy. Driven by considerations such as industrial sustainability, the bioeconomy will become established in countries and regions that deliberately create an enabling environment for its adoption. Sustaining the bioeconomy will necessitate the adoption of a governance scheme for biotechnology that helps bring a large number of developing countries into the global trading system. Failure to do so will create a division among countries and likely will focus public opposition to biotechnology that will be fueled by presumptions about possible market dislocation and apparent technological disparities among nations. A global governance system will require wide-ranging improvements, a favorable regulatory environment for biotechnology, and management of risks and benefits associated with its use.