Thaís Brianezi
Reporter - Agência Brasil
Pinhais (PR) - Exchanging information and acting in networks are essential for preventing and combatting the non-authorized use of genetic resources and the traditional knowledge associated with these resources. That is why, on Monday (27), the Andean Network to Combat Biopiracy sponsored a parallel debate on the 6th day of the 8th Conference of the Parties to the Biological Diversity Convention.
Isabel Lapeña is the coordinator of the Peruvian Environmental Rights Society, which is in charge of coordinating the efforts of the network. She reported that the network already has work groups in Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela, as well as being a member of the Peruvian National Commission Against Biopiracy. "Biopiracy ordinarily takes advantage of knowledge not protected by the system of intellectual property rights," she declared. "Our next steps are to organize awareness-raising workshops in Europe and Japan."
The participants in the debate watched a video edited in January of this year and shown in February at the last meeting of the Permanent Work Group on Access to Genetic Resources and Shared Benefits, in Spain. The short documentary, which includes many images of the forest and indigenous peoples, emphasized that traditional knowledge is formed dynamically, based on a harmonious relationship between human beings and nature, a part of the cultural identity of the communities that possess it.
"The Biological Diversity convention acknowledges the importance of this knowledge to local communities. But, as a rule, the biotechnological industry neither consults nor respects these communities, much less to share with them its research results," affirmed Juanita Chavez, a Colombian who works for the Humboldt Institute. "This is the historical legacy of decades of free access to natural resources and traditional knowledge. In the Andean region of the Americas, this began in the colonial period."
Paul Oldman, an English scientists with the Center for Economic and Social Aspects of the Genome, offered data confirming the growing interest on the part of global industry in natural resources. Based on surveys of official patent registries, he demonstrated that the number of new products or processes containing medical properties rose from less than one thousand in 1990 to 3-4 thousand in 2000 and 6-7 thousand in 2004.
"But the most curious aspect, which we generally fail to note, is that most of the patent requests are for genes that still don't have economic application," Oldman commented. "If we take a good look, we will reach the conclusion that speculative interests are concerned with this information, and they are probably linked to transgenic possibilities, the transfer of genes from one species to another."
"We are trying to establish alliances with the indigenous populations of Peru and Bolivia. We intend to become partners of the Andean Network," declared the indigenous leader, Manuel Roque Yawanawa, from the state of Acre, in the Brazilian Amazon region. He is participating in the "Watchful Villages" project, which is holding training workshops on how communities should deal with the scientists who seek them out. The project involves around one thousand Manchineri Indians, who live in Acre, Peru and Bolivia, which share frontiers with Brazil. There are 4000 Machineri in all.
