Towards an integrated approach with local communities to ensure sustainable and ethical use of marine genetic resources - The case of cone snails in French Polynesia

Our contribution will present the methods and results of the first international project (POLYCONE, supported by the Belmont Forum, CRA Ocean) in sustainability science, aimed at establishing a sustainable, fair and ethical management plan for marine cones in French Polynesia. After four years of interdisciplinary work and dialogue with local communities and authorities, we will present the levers and obstacles to the sustainable use and fair retribution of genetic resources, focusing on socio-ecological governance as a transformative and effective solution for ecosystems, non-human populations and the human societies that depend on them.

This analytical feedback could enlighten other territories and communities, particularly island ones, on the front line of global change, where the sciences of sustainability and transformation have much to contribute by linking nature and culture through the thread of knowledge and enlightened, ethical public decision-making and collective action around the commons.

The question of how to define communities, their political role and the legal and ethical pluralism between local, national and international statutes (Nagoya Protocol and The Access and Benefit-sharing on Genetic Resources) will be particularly discussed in the case of French over-seas territories. This contribution reports on the international collaboration within the POLYCONE project and interactions with the International Research Netwok APOLMER on Ocean governance and resource management (CNRS-Sciences Po, Univ. Hawaii and Ottawa, CNRS research units) in strong interaction with the Chaire Outre-mer (Sciences Po - CEVIPOF), while itself questioning the role of science and scientists in (post)colonial territories subject facing the impacts of global change in marine ans coastal environments.