Recent Content Related to Biodiversity & Cultural Diversity

Enclosures of the Mind: Intellectual Monopolies

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A Resource Kit on Community Knowledge, Biodiversity, and Intellectual Property Rights

An introduction to intellectual property monopolies. The 70 page booklet produced by IDRC in 1996 is designed as an information and advocacy tool for civil society and policymakers in response to two new, legally binding international agreements: the Convention on Biological Diversity and the World Trade Organization's Trade Related Intellectual Property Agreement (WTO/TRIPs).

Related Issues: 
Patents & Biopiracy
Farmers' Rights & Food Sovereignty
Biodiversity & Cultural Diversity
Related Fora: 
Trade: UNCTAD, WTO
Biodiversity: CBD, SBSTTA, IPBES

US Government Dumps the Hagahai Patent

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Official Notice to Coincide with Human Rights Day

After months of indecision and confusing signals, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has finally put an end to its internationally-denounced patent on the human cell line of a Hagahai indigenous person from Papua New Guinea. I hope this is the end of what is arguably the most offensive patent ever issued." says Alejandro Argumedo of the Canada-based Indigenous Peoples' Biodiversity Network (IPBN).

Pharmaceutical Companies Bid for Northern Botanical Garden Collections in Attempt to Avoid the Biodiversity Convention

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Cotton "Failing in the Field"

Pharmaceutical firms and biotech companies are approaching botanical gardens to buy samples of tropical plant diversity - a clear violation of the spirit - if not the law - of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The rights of farmers and indigenous peoples are being bypassed by corporate deals that make a mockery of the CBD's fundamental principles.

The Geopolitics of Biodiversity: A Biodiversity Balance Sheet

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Crucial Decisions in 1996. The Real Hot Spots.

RAFI's survey of agricultural biodiversity reveals that 75% of ex situ genetic resources and technology are held in the North, while 83% of in-situ genetic resources and technology are held in the South. Multilateral regimes for agricultural biodiversity management must insure that proceeds from biodiversity benefits go to the South's farmers.

Bioprospecting/Biopiracy and Indigenous Peoples

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Bio-Prospectors Hall of Shame...or Guess Who's Coming to Pirate Your Plants?! Pros and Cons of Bilateral Bioprospecting Agreements

ISSUE: Biodiversity prospecting is the exploration, extraction and screening of biological diversity and indigenous knowledge for commercially valuable genetic and biochemical resources. Bilateral bioprospecting agreements are sanctioned by the multilateral Convention on Biological Diversity. In the vast majority of cases, however, commercial bioprospecting agreements cannot be effectively monitored or enforced by source communities, countries, or by the Convention, and amount to little more than "legalized" bio-piracy.

Sixty-Five Years of the U.S. Plant Patent Act (PPA)

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Has the PPA Benefitted Society? The PPA's Relevance for the South.

RAFI examines plant utility patents granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office from 1985 through mid-1995. Utility plant patenting is a threat to world food security; exceedingly broad patents on biological materials and the processes used to manipulate them are "locking up" new plant biotechnologies in the hands of a small number of corporations.

Biopiracy Update: A Global Pandemic

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Cases from Thailand, Gabon, Ecuador, and Peru

This issue looks at biopiracy case studies around the world including super-sweet brazzein from Gabon; the Foundation for Ethnobiology in Thailand; Peruvian indigenous peoples' rejection of Washington University's ICBG project; and more. A detailed list of bioprospecting and biopiracy activities (as of early 1996) is also included.

Volume 2, #2 The Hidden Hot Zone

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An Epidemic in Two Parts

Phytophtora infestans, also known as the "late potato blight" is the fungus that caused the Great Potato Famine of 1845-49. One hundred and fifty years later, the blight is back again in new and deadlier forms. Will governments muster the political will to wage a true war against hunger and food insecurity? A nine page document.

 

Related Issues: 
Biodiversity & Cultural Diversity

Utility Plant Patents: A Review of the U.S. Experience (1985 - July, 1995)

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Staking Ever-Broader Claims on Entire Species and Important Traits; Implications for the South

A detailed examination of the impact of the US Plant Patent Act. Passed by the US Congress in 1930, the PPA is the world's oldest sui generis intellectual property system designed for the patenting of life forms.

Gene Hunters in Search of "Disease Genes" Collect Human DNA from Remote Island Populations

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Indigenous Peoples Assert their Intellectual Integrity; Call for Life forms Patent-Free Zone in the Pacific; Life Forms Patent Update

In the race to identify patent and commercialize human genes, scientists and their corporate partners are collecting DNA samples from remote island populations in the South Atlantic, Micronesia and the east China sea. This issue highlights Sequana's search for the "asthma gene" derived from DNA samples collected from the people of Tristan da Cunha.

Volume 1, #4 Pirating Medicinal Plants:

Submitted by ETC Staff on

COPs... and Robbers... Transfer-Sourcing Indigenous Knowledge (with Indigenous Peoples' Biodiversity Network)

Pharmaceutical companies dont want to study rare plants. They want to test the most - commonly used species. The valuable medical plants are those with the longest track record in the most location. In a survey of almost 1.000 medical plants used around the world, most of the pharmacologically - (and commercially) interesting species are employed in more than one community, and often, in several countries.  This is great news for BioPirates, who can move benevolently from place to place in search of the best deal.

Related Issues: 
Patents & Biopiracy
Biodiversity & Cultural Diversity
Related Fora: 
Biodiversity: CBD, SBSTTA, IPBES

People, Plants, and Patents

Submitted by ETC Staff on

The impact of intellectual property on trade, plant biodiversity, and rural society

One of the most eagerly awaited publications in the plant genetic resources (PGR) community. - Diversity 1994, 10(2), 25

The recent GATT agreement and the Biodiversity Convention have moved intellectual property rights to the centre of South-North relations.

Decisions about intellectual property, particularly for plant life, have major implications for food security, agriculture, rural development, and the environment for every country in the South and the North. For the South, in particular, the impact of intellectual property on farmers, rural societies, and biological diversity will be profoundly important.

* Patents granted for genetically engineered cotton could profoundly influence the future of a $20 billion crop critical to many national economies in the South.
* Farmers' organizations in Andean countries believe that patents granted for two varieties of coloured cotton do not recognize the major contribution to the new product by indigenous communities in South and Central America.

Related Issues: 
Seeds & Genetic Diversity
Farmers' Rights & Food Sovereignty
Biodiversity & Cultural Diversity
Genomics & Biotechnology
International Governance
Corporate Concentration
The Bioeconomy

Species Patent on Transgenic Soybeans Granted to Transnational Chemical Giant W.R. Grace

Submitted by ETC Staff on

The Implications of a Species Patent; Indian Government Revokes Agracetus Species Patent on Cotton

ISSUE: On March 2, 1994 Agracetus, Inc. (a subsidiary of W.R. Grace & Co.) received a European Patent on all transgenic soybean varieties. The company has a similar patent pending in the USA. In addition, Agracetus has a world patent (WIPO) pending for genetic transformation of rice.

IMPACT: Sweeping patent claims on all transgenic soybeans, a previous patent on all transgenic cotton, and a portfolio of patents pending on other major crops--(rice, groundnuts, maize and more) give W.R. Grace legal monopolies and exclusive control over any genetically engineered variety of soybeans and cotton for the life of the patent. A major chemical corporation is thus positioned to control the direction of future biotechnology research on two of the world's major food and industrial crops. These shocking examples of species-wide" patent claims confirm that the intellectual property system as applied to biotechnology products and processes is out of control, posing a serious threat to global food security and the well-being of small farmers.

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