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5.	'Bio-Access'
	Bio-access' sounds like it could be about opening doors to the exploitation of biological resources. On the contrary, however, bio-access legislation is emerging as an answer to rampant bio-prospecting – where biological riches like coral reefs and mahogany forests are 'mined' away with little thought for the long term. With the emergence of free trade and a global economy, legislated environmental protection is seen as being increasingly necessary to limit the destruction and ensure that local people share in the benefits. Bio-access legislation allows nations and communities hosting outside investment in their natural resources to define the parameters within which development can proceed. A case in point is Laos – a hotbed of biocultural diversity (see DI # 2) with at least 40 major ethnic groups and a range of species straddling the Himalayan, Indo-Malayan and Chinese bio-zones. Laotian legislators – aided by a range of organizations including Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Penang, Malaysia-based Third World Network (TWN) and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) – are attempting to establish domestic control over their national biodiversity, even as they open up the Lao economy to international trade and investment. By tempering the impact of foreign investment, the bio-access moves are designed to take the sting out of increased bio-prospecting in the South-east Asian nation. Similar environmental initiatives are proceeding in Costa Rica, India and the Philippines. All can be seen as responses to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) – signed in 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit – which opens up the biological resources of nations to foreign access but also gives countries the right to introduce legislation protecting their own interests. [legislation giving bio-prospecting benefits to local communities]
	bio-prospecting n.ecological mining activity bio-colonization or bio-imperialism n. external domination over biological resources; often associated with the trend toward economic 'globalization'
	Darrell A. Posey and Graham Dutfield. Beyond Intellectual Property: Toward Traditional Resource Rights for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. Ottawa, Canada: IDRC, 1996.
Virtual Ideas	Legislation to counter bio-prospecting in Laos: an IDRC Reports feature Traditional Resource Rights Inbio – Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad – English site.