In today’s Policy Forum in Science, Jinnah and Jungcurt discuss global biological resource access requirements (DOI). Writing this blog entry from a four-square-meter internet hole annex stationary annex book shop annex business center in the Ghion Hotel in Addis Ababa, I wish I could read the full text of that policy piece, since getting access to biological resources is exactly what I am trying to do.
I am just in the middle of a process described by some as tiresome, lengthy and with unsure outcome: getting permission to export coffee leaf samples for extraction and analysis of wild coffee DNA. I have to agree to this assessment, because after four trips to the Institute for Biodiversity Conservation – the official Jimma University request letter (of course, with the right signature and right stamps on it) went downstream the bureaucratic chain of command and then bounced back to the director at level three – it seems our new Ethiopian PhD student will have to appear in person to get the permit. Apart from patience from the researcher side, I think this kind of process may be improved with some tranparancy from the other side.

Update: the IBC has a webpage outlining the procedure for transfer of genetic material.