Beyond benefit-sharing agreements: bioprospecting for the poor?

This article investigates whether novel benefit-sharing arrangements might give rise to a new form of bioprospecting activity through the examination of what appears to be a new model of bioprospecting represented by Gram Mooligai Company Limited (GMCL). GMCL, which is a community-based enterprise active in herbal sector in India, sells medicinal herbs and commercializes phytomedicines using the local ethnomedicine knowledge. The article aims to show how an alternative representation of bioprospecting from below can be an instrument to enhance the local livelihoods of communities and promote their empowerment and capacity building.