Between Protection, Rights and Commercialisation. The Convention on Biological Diversity in the Process of Globalisation and the Opportunities for a Democratic Politics of Biodiversity

1. Introduction 2. The historical context: Globalisation and biodiversity 3. The complex role of the CBD 4. Current problems and conflicts in the CBD process a) Access, benefit sharing and intellectual property rights: Prospects for an international ABS regime b) Conservation of biodiversity and the introduction of genetically modified seed c) Instrumentalisation of indigenous peoples and farming communities d) Implementation weaknesses e) Lack of coherence within the CBD, and in comparison with other conventions f) Forum-shifting g) Maintenance of structural power imbalances 5. Omissions within the CBD Process a) Regulatory difficulties of technological developments b) Biopiracy and the increasing militarisation of the appropriation of nature c) Obscuration of asymmetrical gender relations 6. Significance of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 7. Opportunities for a democratic biodiversity policy process a) Democratisation of science and technology development b) Disclosing the practices of biopiracy and the actors involved c) Making the concerns of weaker actors visible d) Demanding not only the participation of weaker actors, but also their legal claims to rights 8. The role of civil society organisations 9. On the way to COP 9 in Germany, 2008 Bibliograph