The University of Arizona was awarded an International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups (ICBG) Program grant in 1993 for research into drug discovery from medicinal plants, biodiversity conservation, and economic development in Latin America. While biodiversity from arid lands is well known to produce a vast array of natural products as defensive agents and poisons, they have received much less attention than plants from the tropical rainforests as potential sources of drugs for human health. This project, funded by the U.S. government, has been undertaken in cooperation with universities and research institutions from the U.S.A., Argentina, Chile, and Mexico, and U.S. pharmaceutical and agrochemical corporations. This ICBG program is unique in its emphasis on the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity regarding the implementation of policies on conservation of natural resources, intellectual property rights, and other issues of concern to host countries.
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