With the launch of Bio Valley and the wooing of foreign partners and investors in biotechnology, Malaysia hopes to host many more local and foreign ventures on an even larger scale.

To prepare for this, the mega-diverse country is drafting laws to protect its rights and its resources -- a move akin to putting the "legal horse" before the "biotechnology cart".

"In order for biotechnology to fly, there is an urgent need for us to implement two fundamental bills...on biosafety, and access and benefit- sharing," said Adib Rahman, principal assistant secretary in the Conservation and Environmental Management Division of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

The division serves as the secretariat for the National Biodiversity-Biotechnology Council, which is chaired by the Prime Minister and includes all 13 chief ministers and nine Federal ministers.

BILL DRAFTED AND TABLED

The Biosafety Bill was presented to the Cabinet in January, Adib said, and the Cabinet approved it to be tabled in Parliament. They are now preparing it for tabling in Parliament, which could be sometime this year, at the discretion of the Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Datuk Seri Adenan Satem.

The Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) Bill is taking longer, Adib said, because a regime on ABS is still evolving at the international level. But in the meantime, in order to avoid bio-piracy, Malaysia is drafting its own legislation to regulate access, protect its resources and intellectual property rights and ensure fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of its genetic resources.

What are the new laws likely to contain? "The Biosafety Bill is to assess that the products are safe to use and safe for the environment, humans and animals," said Adib.

"What we are doing now is...coming up with a law that will put a safety screen on all products before they are marketed. We don't want to be guinea pigs." Under the bill, products must be introduced to a "competent authority" comprising representatives from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture & Agro-Based Industries, Ministry of International Trade & Industry, Ministry of Domestic Trade & Consumer Affairs and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

SAWARAK AHEAD

For the ABS bill, Malaysia is looking at state legislation in East Malaysia. The Sarawak Biodiversity Access, Collection and Research Regulation 1998 (amended 2001) for example, requires a Research Permit, Export Permit, Sales Permit for protected species and Ethnobiological Research Permit from the relevant activities involving local biodiversity.

Those conducting such activities without permits can be fined and/or jailed. The permits are issued by the Sarawak Biodiversity Centre (SBC), which is also compiling registers of traditional knowledge, in the Bidayuh community for example.

"We have to have a register of traditional knowledge," Adib said, "so that if the knowledge is used, the benefit can be shared. The onus is on the government to act in trust for the community and negotiate on their behalf." The SBC had gone on high alert on thefts of wild orchids in the famed Mount Mulu National Park when three Japanese tourists were fined RM1,500 in default three
months' jail each for taking out 31 wild orchids from the park area. These tourists, who pleaded guilty, were charged under a section of the Wild Life Protection Ordinance, 1998.

FOREIGN MODELS

Malaysia is also studying laws in India, the Philippines and South America.

"Basically, the principle is free access for all Malaysians," explained Adib. "You can still pluck flowers and go fishing. But you have to go to the competent authorities...if there is any bioprospecting involving foreigners, when resources are taken out of the country and when resources are commercialised."

In such cases, the authority will want to know the location and will require an Environmental Impact Assessment to ensure sustainable harvesting, among other things.

The Selangor-based Global Environment Centre's director, Faizal Parish, called for more protected areas for biodiversity and stricter enforcement to prevent poaching.

"We need strict limits on extraction amounts and/or a move towards cultivation," he added. Parish suggested "user pay" schemes which could channel funds to conservation, as well as financial incentives for the states to conserve their biodiversity resources.

He agreed that there should be documentation of species with potential uses which would help to protect the intellectual property rights of indigenous people and ensure benefit-sharing.

"Besides benefit-sharing, we hope the rights of the indigenous community to their land will be respected," said Miri-based Borneo Resources Institute (BRIMAS) assistant project coordinator, Mark Bujang.

"It is not clear what happens to the indigenous people when researchers go into their customary land," he said, noting that when something valuable is found, the state has the power to gazette a reserve or protected area there. For example, Bujang said, after a joint venture between the Sarawak state government and the National Cancer Institute found a bioactive compound in the bintangor (calophyllum lanigerum) tree which could be developed into an anti-AIDS drug and which has since moved into clinical trials, two of the sub-species were gazetted as protected species.

The activist said there was confusion among the indigenous people about which sub-species were gazetted and which could be harvested.

"They had mainly used it for timber but the Penans used the bark for medicinal purposes, for stomach aches and other pains," he explained.