More than thirty years of international talks culminated in the launch of the Cali Fund in Rome on February 25 2025. The fund’s formal title – the Cali Fund for the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits from the Use of Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources – reflects the long‑standing dispute over who should receive compensation when a company exploits a genetic sequence taken from a rainforest plant to create a blockbuster drug.
The initiative was adopted during the resumed session of the 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the treaty that has governed global biodiversity since 1993. For years the convention contained a gap: nations rich in biological diversity, most of them in the global South, argued that whenever a pharmaceutical or agricultural firm used their genetic resources, a share of the profits should return to the source countries. The rise of digital sequence information (DSI) widened that gap. Researchers no longer need a physical specimen from the Amazon; a string of genetic code stored online can be accessed, copied and shared instantly. Existing benefit‑sharing rules did not cover this scenario.
The Cali Fund is designed to address that shortfall by targeting private‑sector entities that utilize DSI. Money collected from those users will be directed to biodiversity‑rich countries, indigenous peoples and local communities. The underlying principle is simple: if a firm profits from a genetic code that originated in a particular ecosystem, the stewards of that ecosystem ought to receive a portion of the gain.
While the exact financial targets and payment mechanisms are still being refined, the fund’s architects describe it as a means to mobilize significant resources. They emphasize that the arrangement is not charitable but a market correction aimed at aligning the interests of genetic‑data users with those of the providers of the original biological material. Industries such as biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and agriculture have expanded dramatically while the countries harboring the source genetic material have often seen little return.
The timing of the launch is noteworthy. The COP 16 meeting in Rome was a resumed session; the original conference held in Cali, Colombia, had left unresolved issues. Naming the fund after that host city underscores the effort required to reach agreement. Delegates from developing nations pressed strongly for the mechanism, while some industry groups resisted. The final accord represents a compromise that nevertheless shifts the direction of benefit‑sharing policy.
Beyond economics, the fund sends a conservation signal. When genetic resources lack market value, there is limited financial motive to preserve the ecosystems that contain them. By creating a flow of value back to the people who protect forests, reefs and other habitats, the Cali Fund introduces an economic incentive for conservation. Indigenous peoples and local communities are explicitly named in the fund’s purpose, acknowledging that many of the world’s most biodiverse areas lie on lands they manage. Under the previous system, those groups had no claim to benefits derived from genetic data taken from their territories.
The mechanism itself is novel and will require time to demonstrate its effectiveness in practice. However, the launch in Rome was more than a symbolic gesture; it marked the conclusion of a negotiation that stretches back to the inception of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the beginning of a system that could reshape how the world values genetic information.
Sources
- The Cali Fund launches in the margins of the resumed session of…
- Biodiversity COP 16: Important Agreement Reached Towards Goal of…
