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Extremely inhospitable habitats, such as hot springs in Yellowstone, support thriving microbial communities. The study of these microorganisms and how they function under extreme conditions can provide vital information to bioprospectors. The National Park Service is completing an environmental analysis of the implications of bioprospecting in national parks.
Photo Credit: copyright Jeff Selleck
John_varley@nps.gov
Director, Yellowstone Center for Resources; Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
ann_deutch@nps.gov
Research Permit Facilitator, Yellowstone National
Park, Wyoming
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Bioprospecting is the search for valuable organic compounds in nature. Once discovered, these compounds are normally taken to a public or private laboratory where staff develop techniques to synthesize or produce a promising compound in larger quantities. Such discoveries are made by focused bioprospectors but are also a serendipitous result of basic research. At least 10 national parks have received proposals for scientific research projects that might lead to tangibly valuable scientific discoveries in many fields, including medicine, agriculture, energy production, and bioremediation technologies.
Like other parks, Yellowstone National Park has allowed scientists to collect small specimens of rocks, plants, and other organisms for research purposes. If the results of such research were tangibly valuable, neither Yellowstone nor the National Park Service ever received more than a pat on the back. In 1997 this situation began to be corrected. Yellowstone entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Diversa Corporation to share benefits, including the licensing and sale of products developed from research involving microorganisms collected from Yellowstone's hot springs. Under this agreement, Yellowstone will receive a package of benefits, including a portion of Diversa's profits if any are derived from research involving the park's microbes.
"Yellowstone will receive ... a portion of Diversa's profits if any are derived from research involving the park's microbes."
In 1999 the CRADA was the subject of a lawsuit in the District Court of Washington, D.C. The suit asserted that the National Park Service had failed to meet the requirements of a variety of laws when it entered into the CRADA with Diversa. In April 2000 the court ruled that Yellowstone's CRADA with Diversa is "proper" and "does not conflict with the conservation mandate." The court also emphasized congressional intent regarding these agreements involving national parks. Finding that the CRADA "plainly constitutes an 'equitable, efficient benefits sharing arrangement,'" the court went on to declare that "the far-reaching terms of the Parks Management Act reinforce the conclusion that the Yellowstone-Diversa CRADA is proper." Nonetheless, because of a preliminary judgment in 1999, the CRADA is currently suspended until the National Park Service completes an environmental analysis examining the implications of bioprospecting in the national parks.
(See the news brief related to progress involving Yellowstone's bison management plan.)
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This material is from Natural Resource Year in Review--1999; published by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, August 2000 (publication D-1406)
/YearInReview/yir/yir99/pages/02challenges/04varely_bioprospecting.htm
Last Updated: 09/26/00
Webmaster: jeff_selleck@nps.gov