Background: The Biorights system was developed after urgent requests from the University of Palangka Raya in Central Kalimantan and other academics from Indonesia to re-direct EU peatlands research funding in Central Kalimantan towards enhancing income opportunities for local communities. Action was required after serious social unrest in the province. The Global Peatland Initiative made funding available for fighting peat and peat swamp forests fires in the region and in the meantime partners in the EU scientific STRAPEAT project obtained seed funding from Alterra to assess possibilities for direct income generation for the local people that depend on the peatland resources in one of the poorest areas of Indonesia. The area is also of importance as a carbon store (peat forest fires pose a significant threat to the global climate) and has globally important biodiversity values, including one of the largest remaining populations of Orang Utan.
Initial official discussions where hosted by the British ambassador in Jakarta. The Biorights concept was presented at the Ramsar COP8 in Valencia, where Mali delegates showed a keen interest to be involved. The government of Costa Rica was asked by the Biorights project team to participate as Costa Rica has most experience with payments for environmental services.
Biorights thus is a demand driven initiative, but simultaneously it can not be seen separate from the Millenium Goals which recognise the need to de-couple poverty and environmental destruction in developing countries as a priority. The system was tested on request of local stakeholders and the government in 3 countries, including Indonesia, Costa Rica and Mali.

Brief project description:
The Biorights project focuses on the global rural poverty gap as a major cause of both poverty and loss of biodiversity in developing countries. Its philosophy is that sustainable development in developing countries often comes with opportunity costs for local people in poverty trapped rural regions. These people often depend for their income to a significant extent on exploitation of natural resources, and under poverty conditions it is generally unavoidable that natural resources and biodiversity become over-exploited. The project assessed the willingness of local stakeholders in Indonesia, Costa Rica and Mali to follow a Biorights approach towards sustainable development. All three countries welcomed the project initiative and local stakeholders, NGO`s and governments fully co-operated on project execution. The project also assessed the willingness of global stakeholders to provide direct payments for conserving biodiversity to local stakeholders in poverty trapped regions with a high biodiversity value. To this end, discussions were held with the World Bank, International Finance Corporation, RABO bank, and Conservation International, Forest Trends, World Resources Institute, DGIS and partner organisations, including Wetlands International, IFPRI, Plant Research International and IUCN. Substantial interest was shown by global donors and financial institutions, resulting in willingness to co-operate in further development of the approach. The approach was presented at the CBD, the UNEP-FI Global Roundtable in Tokyo (Oct. 2003) together with government representatives from Indonesia, Costa Rica and Mali. Opportunities identified for implementation of the Biorights approach are documented on the website.
The next step is to provide for a global or regional Biorights fund in order to provide payments. A draft proposal for such a fund has been discussed at the UNEP-FI Roundtable in Tokyo, October 2003.