Countries must put aside cynicism and differing opinions to make the Nagoya protocol a success, say Suneetha Subramanian and Govindan Parayil.

With traditional food production under threat from climate change, we should switch from agriculture to cell culture, says Lucía Atehortúa.

Protecting biodiversity can cut poverty, but policymakers need to give the poor more control of resources, says Dilys Roe.

The biological control of pests, which has notched up thousands of successes, is threatened by the biopiracy regime to be agreed next week.

To meet new biodiversity targets, African countries must plug science gaps and align goals with climate deals, says Linda Nordling.

Biodiversity negotiations will greatly impact academics, and scientists must speak up before it is too late, warn Sikina Jinnah and Stefan Jungcurt.

More should be done to strengthen ties between formal scientific research and informal grassroots innovations, says Anil Gupta.

SciDev.Net readers debate ways for Africa to benefit from research that makes use of its natural resources.

David Simpson and Roger Sedjo say that governments of developing countries have been misled about the potential value of their biological resources.

Martin Khor argues that a major effort is needed to prevent intellectual property rules from undermining the indigenous knowledge that is essential for sustainable development.

Joshua Rosenthal argues that the termination of a US research project of indigenous plants in Mexico may reduce scientists' ability to develop sustainable uses of biodiversity for local and global benefit.