Benefit Sharing Project (BSP)
Co-Chairs
You can get involved by contacting:
Benefit Sharing Project (BSP)
The Benefit Sharing Project was launched by Moon Village Association in 2022 and is part of the Adaptive Governance Working Group’s activities.
The BSP works on identifying the benefits that the use and exploration of the Moon are expected to create, and developing concrete mechanisms that can be adopted to assure that lunar activities are beneficial for the whole society, and socio-economic gaps are mitigated as humanity goes back to the Moon.
Why share benefits?
Within the next ten years, more than 100 lunar missions are planned to occur, governmental and non-governmental. Whilst acknowledging the outstanding achievements this return to the Moon can promote in many areas, we also recall that not every nation will be involved, and there are no guarantees that all humanity will benefit from this new era of space exploration.
International Space Law is based on the general recognition that the use and exploration of outer space shall be the province of humankind, and shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development.
The BSP believes that establishing mechanisms for an equitable sharing of benefits is a path to advance in the use and exploration of the Moon ensuring that the interests of all humanity are not only contemplated but decisively addressed, while encouraging the development of lunar activities by those who already have the capabilities to begin this journey but may lack incentives for behavior better than required.
The Deliverables
The Benefit Sharing Project is building a central working document, proposing operational and actionable solutions for lunar activities benefit sharing, focusing on 3 major sections:
- a legal analysis of the space and lunar activities benefit sharing context;
- an inventory of benefit sharing practical implementations from the ground up, proposing a variety of mechanisms that do not necessarily involve compulsory monetary benefit sharing;
- a review of the current space domain governance process to assess possibilities for operationalization of BSP proposals (UN COPUOS, industry, civil society, academia etc.).
The document is intended to guide governmental and private operators’ policies and activities, while also providing building blocks for the UN to possibly establish a benefit sharing regime in the future.
The Team & Get Involved
Co-chaired by Suyan Malhadas and Christophe Bosquillon, the BSP team gathers more than 50 members and forms a diverse international group in terms of Generation, Gender, Geography and professional background.
We believe diversity is decisive to widen our perception of different demands that arise from different contexts, and develop creative solutions.
Project’s members are working either as early stage contributors and/or later stage reviewers.
Interested? Get involved by contacting the co-chairs of the BSP:
