News Release
Coalition Against Biopiracy
7 March 2008
www.captainhookawards.org
Ahoy, Mates! The Coalition Against Biopiracy today calls for nominations for the Fifth Captain Hook Awards
*** Please Circulate to Your Networks throughout the Seven Seas ***
What's the most scandalous case of biopiracy[1] in your country? Who's ripping off indigenous knowledge in your community? Which privateer is most egregiously pillaging the global commons for profit? Who's monopolizing your genes or patenting your plants?
Nominate your least favorite pirate for a 2008 Captain Hook Award. All outrageous achievements in biopiracy deserve recognition!
Nominate your most admired biopiracy-resistor for a 2008 Cog Award. All those who have fought off biopirates, defeated predatory patents or otherwise foiled the nefarious plots of fiendish privateers deserve recognition. (Cog Awards are so-named because cogs were ships designed to repel pirate attacks.)
Send your nominations to hook@captainhookawards.org. The deadline for nominations is April 30, 2008.
The Coalition Against Biopiracy (CAB)[2] will host the Captain Hook awards ceremony at the Ninth Conference of the Parties (COP9) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Bonn, Germany 19-30 May 2008. This fifth Captain Hook Awards ceremony is preceded by ceremonies at COP8 in Curitiba, Brazil (2006), COP7 in Kuala Lumpur (2004), COP6 in The Hague (2002) and COP5 in Nairobi (2000).
"The Captain Hook Awards are held at the meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD to draw international attention to the Convention's failure to provide meaningful regulations to halt biopiracy," explains Chrisgel Cruz of SEARICE, a member of the Coalition Against Biopiracy. "It has been a decade and a half since the CBD entered into force, and, unfortunately, it's still smooth sailing under clear skies for biopirates."
Verónica Villa of ETC Group, another CAB member, points out the need for global participation to guarantee the success of the Captain Hook Awards. "Distinguishing extreme and egregious acts of biopiracy from those only moderately malevolent is not an easy task," says Villa. "CAB relies on the analysis and vigilance of organizations and people from all over the world who submit nominations along with supporting documentation," she says. Send your nominations to hook@captainhookawards.org.
You can also make nominations on the Captain Hook Awards web site, www.captainhookawards.org.
While many biopirates are frequent visitors to the winner's podium - Gene Giant Syngenta, perennial favorite Monsanto and the U.S. government, for example - many others are new to the pirates' den. The National Geographic Society (for its DNA-collecting Human Genographic Project) and Google (for its foray into the field of human genomics), for example, were first-time winners in 2006 at COP8 in Curitiba, Brazil. This year's winners may come from the new generation of biopirates, but it's too soon to count out biopiracy's old guard.
Here's how to nominate an offender for a Captain Hook Award or a bio-defender for a Cog Award:
Send a brief description of the case with enough supporting documentation for purposes of verification to hook@captainhookawards.org. Nominators may remain anonymous. The deadline for nominations is Wednesday April 30, 2008.
Once the nominated case is verified, it will be posted at www.captainhookawards.org. You can select from the following categories, but are encouraged to create your own category:
For Captain Hook Awards:
Greediest Biopirate
Most Offensive
Most Dangerous
Worst National Behaviour
Worst Threat to Food Sovereignty
Biggest Threat to Genetic Privacy
For Cog Awards:
Best Advocate
Best Peoples' Defense (institution, civil society organization)
Best Legal Defense
Best National Defense
Most Imaginative
For further information about biopiracy and the Captain Hook and Cog Awards, please contact:
Verónica Villa, ETC Group, veronica@etcgroup.org, 52-5555-6326-64 (Mexico)
Hope Shand, ETC Group, hope@etcgroup.org, 919-960-5223 (USA)
Alejandro Argumedo, Asociación ANDES, slfsal-peru@terra.com.pe (51)-84-248-021 (Peru)
Chrisgel Cruz, SEARICE, searice@searice.org.ph, tel: (63 2) 433-7182 (Philippines)
[1] Biopiracy refers to the appropriation of the knowledge and genetic resources of farming and indigenous communities by people or institutions that seek exclusive monopoly control (patents or intellectual property) over these resources and knowledge.
[2] The Coalition Against Biopiracy is an informal group of civil society and peoples' organizations that first came together at the 1995 Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in Jakarta.
