The Third World and biodiversity : Sad tropics or tropics of plenty ? International regulation and resources in perspective Akin to the much publicised contract drawn between Merck and in 1991, the doctrine issued from the Convention on biological biodiversity on the hypothesis of the development of a new activity - bio prospecting - and a new form of international trade, the one of genes. Whereas this latter conceived in a time which recreated an imagery of plenty attributed to the today this image is doubtful and of disappointment. Ten years after the into effect of the agreement, we hereby propose to draw into perspective the institutional transformations with regard to the international regulation of resources.