Biodiversity, intellectual property rights and north-south trade

In this paper, we examine how biodiversity levels are affected by different regimes of trade- related intellectual property rights (IPRs) in a two- way trade framework where the North and South import and export to each other's market. This approach incorporates domestic consumption (and hence consumer surplus) into the welfare maximization problem of the Southern government in a three- stage game under alternative IPR regimes. We find that for achieving a maximal level of biodiversity and socially optimal welfare in the South, the Southern government should protect farmers` rights. Further, we find that the Southern government has economic incentives to acknowledge international patents and protect biodiversity even in the absence of farmers'' s rights.