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The authors said concerted action is required to mitigate the impact of warming on polar ecosystems via conservation efforts, to sustainably manage these unique habitats and their ecosystem services, and for the sustainable bioprospecting of novel genes and compounds for societal gain.

This practice is called "bioprospecting."

Come up with new biotechnology agreements that guarantee species are collected, studied and analyzed in Brazil by Brazilians so that the bioprospecting of the future is not as exploitative as are today’s illegal logging and gold mining.

Forming policies that will guide bioprospecting and biodiscovery is a sensitive, controversial area of research, but we now have that capacity.

At the meeting last week, the group reviewed common challenges for collecting and handling research data in Africa, including sensitive and potentially lucrative information gathered for medical research and bioprospecting — the practice of scanning natural resources such as plants and animals for compounds that can be turned into drugs or other commercial products.