Date: August 17, 1997
 

Contacts: 
John D. Varley 
Director (Yellowstone Center for Resources) 
Yellowstone National Park 
(307) 344-2203 

 Preston T. Scott 
Director 
WFED 
 (202) 364-8276

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WY _ A new initiative to protect the great diversity of microbial life that thrives in the boiling hot springs and other thermal features at Yellowstone National Park _ but that remains largely unexplored _ was announced today during ceremonies celebrating the Park's 125th anniversary attended by Vice President Al Gore and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. 

The Yellowstone Thermophiles Conservation Project, a cooperative project between Yellowstone, the World Foundation for Environment and Development (WFED) and the National Park Foundation (NPF), will encourage scientific exploration of Yellowstone's thermal resources in ways that will capture benefits for Yellowstone and the conservation of its unique habitats. The Project also will explore important biodiversity management practices that can be adapted to the particular needs and circumstances of other Parks and conservation areas nationwide. 

The Project will support new microbial biodiversity conservation activities, scientific research, and public outreach and education at Yellowstone. Project plans include a new film for the Visitor Center at Old Faithful that will _ for the first time _ make the invisible life of the hot springs `visible' for the public; a guide for the Midway Geyser Basin that will highlight the colorful microbial ecosystems surrounding Grand Prismatic; development of an integrated geothermal and biological information database that will assist Yellowstone's thermal resource management; and public workshops relating to the development of Yellowstone's pilot `bioprospecting' program. Initial support for the Project has been provided by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and the National Park Foundation. Options are also under review for the development of a microbial research laboratory and visitor center at Yellowstone to further the Park's capacity for on-site study of microbiology and to maximize opportunities for public education at the Park. 

Yellowstone's 10,000 thermal features provide a rare habitat for many forms of microscopic life only recently discovered _ life too small to see, but reflecting biological diversity that rivals the tropical rainforests and thriving in habitats once thought too extreme to allow life to exist. Research activities at Yellowstone indicate that less than 2 percent of the thermophilic (or `heat-loving') microorganisms living in the hot springs and other thermal features at the Park have been identified. NASA research at Yellowstone suggests that the Park's thermal environments offer some of the world's best preserved `windows' on the origin of life on Earth as well as clues about the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe. 

Yellowstone also announced that it has reached agreement on a `bioprospecting' arrangement with Diversa Corporation (a world leader in the discovery and commercial application of enzymes (`biocatalysts') headquartered in San Diego, California). Yellowstone's agreement with Diversa Corporation — the first such bioprospecting agreement involving a US National Park _ positions Yellowstone to share in future profits Diversa might earn from research involving tiny microorganisms collected at Yellowstone's hot springs and geysers. The bioprospecting negotiations between Yellowstone and Diversa Corporation were facilitated by WFED, which also is working closely with the Park on its new bioprospecting activities. 

Yellowstone Superintendent Michael Finley hailed the Project as signaling a shift in the way that conservation and scientific research interests can work together for mutual benefit. "For 125 years, Yellowstone's resources have been protected for the benefit of future generations. This initiative, which requires a reinvestment of economic and scientific dividends resulting from research to flow back into the Park for conservation purposes, will help ensure that future generations enjoy the full benefit of the Park's resource conservation mission." 

John Varley, Director of Yellowstone's Center for Resources and the Park's chief scientist, noted that the agreement helps ensure that the Park as protector of the resource shares in the benefits of research results. "While research on Yellowstone's hot spring microbes already has yielded some fantastic results that benefit mankind _ ranging from DNA fingerprinting to AIDs research _ the bioprospecting agreement helps ensure that Yellowstone also benefits from the scientific information generated from microbial research that will strengthen our own resource management work." 

"The Yellowstone-Diversa agreement signals a promising future for enhancing public appreciation for the value of America's National Parks and the rich diversity of life that they protect," said Preston Scott, Director of the World Foundation for Environment and Development, who facilitated the bioprospecting negotiations. "This is another important `first' for Yellowstone and the United States that sets an inspiring example for the creative fusion of science and conservation for the 21st century." 

Scientific interest in Yellowstone's hot spring microbes has increased steadily since development of DNA fingerprinting technology in the late 1980s involving a microorganism called Thermus aquaticus first isolated at Yellowstone. Revenues in excess of several hundred million dollars have been generated from the use of that technology. Lacking an arrangement like that announced today, Yellowstone has not shared in the benefits derived from past research results. 

The `bioprospecting' agreement permits Diversa Corporation to conduct research on microorganisms sampled at Yellowstone, while pledging a portion of the company's future profits from such research to Yellowstone for conservation and the Park's related scientific and public education activities. Yellowstone also will receive new scientific data resulting from the company's research activities at the Park to benefit Yellowstone's biodiversity management program. 

"Bioprospecting" agreements have been pioneered between several US companies and some developing countries for resource conservation projects. The first such agreement was negotiated in 1991 between Merck and Costa Rica's National Biodiversity Institute. In exchange for rights to conduct research on biological samples sourced from Costa Rica's rainforests, Merck has pledged to share future profits from any products developed from such research with Costa Rica's rainforest conservation areas. 

Yellowstone officials estimate that research on microorganisms first discovered in the Park's hot springs has yielded more than ten valuable applications, ranging from DNA fingerprinting to several bio-remediation technologies. Since life was first discovered in Yellowstone's boiling hot springs as recently as the mid-1960s, scientists speculate that many other valuable research applications remain to be discovered. 

Yellowstone National Park has approximately 10,000 thermal features (hot springs, geysers, fumaroles, and boiling mud pots) _ more than the rest of the world combined. Yellowstone is celebrating the 125th anniversary of its founding as America's _ and the world's _ first National Park. Yellowstone was created in part to preserve the rich diversity of geothermal formations found at the Park. When the Park was created in 1872, however, no one imagined that life existed in the extreme environments that characterize the Park's thermal areas. Discovery of life in the hot springs in the mid-1960s initiated expanding research activities that continue to grow _ embracing issues ranging from the origins of life on Earth to clues about the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe. 

The World Foundation for Environment and Development (WFED) is an independent nongovernmental organization based in Washington, DC, that was established in 1992 to undertake creative problem-solving initiatives in the field of environment and development. WFED has contributed to development of benefits-sharing protocols relating to access and use of biological resources in the United States and abroad. Through a cooperative agreement with Yellowstone National Park, WFED is coordinating the Yellowstone Thermophiles Conservation Project that provides opportunities for the benefits derived from `bioprospecting' agreements to be reinvested in the Park for conservation purposes. 

Diversa is a world leader in the discovery, modification, and manufacture of novel enzymes. Since 1994, it has discovered more than 300 proprietary enzymes and now serves customers worldwide. Founded in 1994, the Company was formerly known as Recombinant Biocatalysis, Inc. (RBI). 

More information about the Yellowstone Thermophiles Conservation Project and the Yellowstone-Diversa bioprospecting agreement can be found on WFED's website at http://wfed.org.