earticle

영어

The development of biotechnology not only draws the attention to the actual and potential value of the biological resources but also causes the concern about biodiversity and safety of human beings. In other words, human beings have received unlimited benefit from biotechnology but at the same time have been faced with moral, ethical and legal dilemma from its development. Biological resources, the vital resources for human beings, are the main component of the ecosystem and require the balance between use and conservation. However, it is true that the number of biological resources and the biodiversity itself has decreased while the pressure of human beings demand for biological resources has increased. In addition, the number of species facing extinction has considerably grown and the balance of ecosystem has already been disturbed. In order to address such challenge, the regulatory scope of international environmental conventions has more and more expanded at the international level. At the same time, the domestic law making process for compliance of such conventions has been actively made at the national level of the Parties to those conventions. This paper analyzes the way forward in our addressing the biodiversity and biotechnology issues through investigating major international conventions and relevant domestic legal systems including the current status of Convention on Biological Diversity and Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.