By Sthembile Ndwandwe and Rachel Wynberg

We were honoured in April 2025 to host Professors Ricardo Theophilo Folhes and Eliane Cristina Pinto Moreira Folhes from the Federal University of Pará (UFPA) in Brazil. Their visit forms part of the University of Cape Town (UCT) Bio-economy Research Chair’s ongoing efforts to build partnerships with scholars in Brazil and the broader Global South and to share experiences on the bio-economy under our programme: “Rethinking Biodiversity-based Economies for Conservation and Equity”.

This partnership is both pivotal and timely, especially considering the handover of G20 leadership from Brazil to South Africa. We are interested in the G20 because it has a strong focus on the bio-economy having formed a “G20 Bio-economy Initiative” which has outlined 10 objectives toward transitions that support a more sustainable and inclusive global economy. The G20 Bio-economy Initiative includes objectives that are aligned to the Chair’s bio-economy work including Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS), conservation and sustainable use; responsible use of science, technology, and innovation; traditional knowledge use and protection; robust policy frameworks that foster inclusive and equitable bio-economies; and a bio-economy supported by international collaboration and cooperation. We are especially interested in paying attention to aspects of the bio-economy that Brazil championed concerning the voices and rights of civil and Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) that might get lost with the G20 leadership change.

During their visit, Professors Ricardo and Eliane Moreira Folhes shared valuable insights about Brazil’s experiences with ABS. These insights resonated strongly with our team due to their striking similarities with the South African context. Professor Moreira Folhes described how Indigenous communities in Brazil had largely not benefited from ABS agreements, with negotiations often targeting accessible or less complex communities, who presented fewer challenges to the private sector and state actors.

These experiences mirror those in South Africa in biotrade sectors such as rooibos, pelargonium, buchu, and honeybush, where agreements are often made with established legal entities that may represent some Indigenous groups, or with traditional authorities, rather than with the harvesters and custodians of biodiversity.

In both Brazil and South Africa, systems have been developed to provide access to knowledge and distribute benefits, including databases and centralised benefit-sharing accounts. However, these systems often lack transparency and remain disconnected from IPLCs, making it difficult to ensure clear ABS benefit flows. Furthermore, both countries are home to diverse IPLCs and complex histories of exclusion. Regional political economies, land rights issues, environmental conflicts, and identity politics all influence whether conservation and sustainable use, and issues of equity as envisioned under ABS frameworks, are prioritised by governments and IPLCs.

The importance of ABS frameworks in the Global South cannot be overstated. The CBD incorporates ABS as a mechanism to address the legacy of colonial extraction and biopiracy. However, achieving such transformative change has proved impossible as ABS structures and systems of biodiversity commercialisation often lead to cultural, environmental, and knowledge enclosures. This is in direct contrast to what the global community is trying to achieve through the CBD objectives.

This Brazil–South Africa collaboration on Rethinking Biodiversity-based Economies creates a generative space to identify these enclosure dynamics and reimagine possibilities for transformative change. It moves us beyond accepting ABS as an inherently just or sufficient tool and encourages critical reflection on how it can—and must—be reshaped to truly undo injustices and promote biodiversity justice in the Global South. This year we will host a series of webinars that will tackle ABS and broader bio-economy experiences in Brazil and South Africa. Visit our website for more information on the Rethinking Programme: https://www.rethinking-biodiversity.org, or send us an email: s.ndwandwe@uct.ac.za.