excerpted from:

http://p2pfoundation.net/Benefit_Sharing

Instead of Revenue Sharing with individuals, this process allows benefits to be shared with source communities from which positive externalities have been derived.

Definition

"benefit sharing "refers to a commitment to channel some kind of returns -- whether monetary or non-monetary -- back to the range of designated participants: affected communities, source communities or source nations, participants in clinical trials, genetic disease patient groups." (http://research.iftf.net/node/721)

continued on:

http://p2pfoundation.net/Benefit_Sharing