Bioprospecting and biopiracy in the Americas

[nosmokes]

Again, anyone surprised that the US hasn't ratified the CDB had best take a look at their news sources.
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original-nacla

Bioprospecting and biopiracy in the Americas

by Teo Ballvé

In the 1570s, a physician named Francisco Hernández led the first colonial scientific expedition to the New World. He traveled Mexico collecting plants that might prove valuable in curing European diseases. Since Hernández was clueless when it came to the properties of local plant species, he depended on knowledgeable indigenous healers who guided him to medicinal plants.

Today, indigenous rights activists have a name for what Dr. Hernández did: they call it “biopiracy,” while some prefer the more neutral, “bioprospecting.” Both terms refer to the collection of biological matter from biodiverse regions by corporations for the purpose of extracting useful genetic or biochemical resources that have a profitable and patentable commercial application. Since the wealth of the globe’s biodiversity is mostly concentrated in equatorial regions, bioprospecting is mainly conducted in Third World countries.
But like Dr. Hernández, modern scientists depend on knowledgeable locals—namely, campesinos and indigenous peoples—to work as guides or plant collectors that help narrow the plant species screened for potentially valuable properties. According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, consultation with indigenous peoples doubles the success rate of finding plants with commercially applicable properties.

Indigenous activists and their allies argue corporations are exploiting local knowledge and resources without any social or economic benefit to local communities. But at the heart of the issue is much more than the greed of pharmaceutical corporations. Bioprospecting raises a host of questions about critical global issues, including indigenous rights, intellectual property, environmental conservation, international treaties, and patents.

The stakes are high. A study by ethnobotanist Darrel Posey published in 1990 estimated that the annual world market for medicines derived from medicinal plants discovered from indigenous peoples was $43 billion. However, writes Posey, “less than 0.001% of the profits from drugs that originated from traditional medicine have ever gone to the indigenous peoples who led researchers to them.”

With the rise of the biotechnology industry in the 1980s and 1990s, biotech companies faced increased competition and expiring patents. In response, they increasingly turned to bioprospecting as an attractive way of supplementing synthetic product development, especially in drug discovery.

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