Does the convention on biodiversity safeguard biological diversity?

This paper attempts to assess and evaluate some of the economic implications of the Convention on Biological Diversity. After outlining the main principles and the scope of this Convention, the following issues are addressed: the determination of the 'optimal' level of biodiversity loss, the meaning of incremental costs, and monetary evaluation problems of ecological resources and the problems it poses for the funding mechanism (GEF). The paper concludes with a discussion of the issues of commercialisation and access to genetic resources.