Brasília, August 20, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Native products and genuinely Brazilian natural resources end up being licensed commercially by other countries. With its extensive borders, precarious surveillance, and poor populations in the regions of greatest biodiversity, Brazil becomes an easy prey to bio-piracy.
The head of Itamaraty's Division of Trade Policy, Piragibe Tarragô, met on Tuesday with representatives of the Ministry of Environment's Amazon Work Group (GTA) and legislators from states of Amazonas, Acre, and Pará, to exchange information about the steps that the federal and state governments are taking to combat bio-piracy and the improper appropriation of Brazilian raw materials by some European countries, the United States, and Japan. Special attention was paid to the commercial licensing of the cupuaçu fruit by a Japanese firm, Cupuaçu International Inc.
Bio-piracy consists in the appropriation and monopolization of knowledge belonging to traditional communities with respect to the use of natural resources. This is not a new situation in the Amazon region. In recent years, as a result of advances in biotechnology, facilities in the international context for the registration of trademarks and patents, and international agreements on intellectual property, such as the treaty on Intellectual Property Rights Related to International Trade (TRIPs), the opportunities for this type of exploitation have multiplied. In the Cupuaçu case, the GTA filed an administrative suit in Japan against Asahi Foods and its subsidiary, Cupuaçu International Inc. According to Tarragô, the Brazilian government is supporting the initiatives of these sectors to invalidate trademarks in these countries; nevertheless, it will take two or three months for the outcome to be decided.
Tarragô stated that the solution to bio-piracy depends upon a coordinated action by various Executive organs, especially the Ministries of Environment, Development, and Agriculture, regional institutions in the Amazon area, and the legislature, to create, in the first place, adequate legislation to protect the country against the improper licensing of native products and traditional knowledge belonging to communities in Amazônia. Second of all, he added, to extend Brazilian initiatives to international forums, so that Brazilian efforts on behalf of this type of protection can gain multilateral settings. "It is important that all countries unite for the rules to protect native products, biodiversity, and traditional knowledge to be respected," he said.
The bill to change the rules on patent concessions is in its final week of revision by the Genetic Patrimony Management Council, and it will be submitted to the Minister of Environment, Marina Silva, who will present it to the National Congress. Brazil wants patents for products or processes derived from genetic resources or traditional knowledge not only to comply with the three conditions required by the law (novelty, inventability, and industrial applicability) but also to adhere to the division of benefits with communities in the states of origin, prior and well-disseminated communication with the communities, and, finally, the identification of the origin and the material. (DAS)
