S2E12: UN fund hopes to cash in on nature's bounty. Is it a game-changer?

Feb 17, 2025

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UN Cali Fund aims to collect millions, and possibly billions, of dollars for the conservation of nature and to benefit indigenous people.

Synopsis: Every first and third Tuesday of the month, The Straits Times analyses the beat of the changing environment, from biodiversity conservation to climate change.

Nature’s bounty is vast and we all benefit from it. Think of the huge variety of plants and their timber, seeds and fruits – even the materials from them to make cosmetics.

The immense variety, the huge number of different species and traits in nature, comes from genetics. And this has long been an intangible part of biodiversity, one that is hard to put a price on.

But a new fund agreed at UN biodiversity talks at the end of 2024 is set to change this. Called the Cali Fund, the industry is expected to contribute money for making use of nature.

Companies, such as pharmaceutical and cosmetics firms, will pay for their use of the genetic resources from nature. Money will flow based on either a share of profits or turnover.

But how exactly will this voluntary fund work? And how are these genetic resources defined and tracked?

Green Pulse speaks with Dr Siva Thambisetty, an expert in Intellectual Property Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She was closely involved in the negotiations for the fund.

A special thanks to Aruna Chandrasekhar, who helped with research for this episode. She covers land, food and nature for the Carbon Brief news site.

Highlights of conversation (click/tap above):

2:53 What is the Cali Fund?

4:16 What is genetic material and digital sequence information (DSI)?

8:15 “DSI can also accelerate our research for new drugs.”

19:52 What about the risks of rising inequality? For example, rich companies using free genetic data to create profitable products?

23:32 How will the fund flow into conservation and to indigenous groups?

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Hosts: Audrey Tan (audreyt@sph.com.sg) & David Fogarty (dfogarty@sph.com.sg)