The link between biodiversity an sustainable developmemnt: lessons from INBio’s bioprospecting program in Costa Rica

The quest for a sustainable development model In its quest for a human sustainable development model Costa Rica, as many other countries, faces the challenge of how to establish a proper balance among a complex interaction of economic, social and environmental factors (Estado de la Nación, 2002). With a territory of 51,100 km2 (about the size of West Virginia), the country is home to an estimated number of 500,000 species of plants, animals and microorganisms, representing nearly 5 % of all the world’s diversity of organisms (Obando, 2002). How to protect this biological wealth while simultaneously promoting the social and economic development of the country represents a challenge of singular complexity and magnitude. Congruent with its new proposed paradigm and development model, Costa Rica is devoting nearly a third of its territory to the conservation into perpetuity of its rich biological diversity. This represents a major investment for any country, but particularly for a small developing country like ours, as this means renouncing to the short-term gains of non-sustainable utilization o