INDIGENOUS people are at the mercy of biopirates who steal their traditional knowledge of medicinal plants. So says a report released at a meeting of the UN Convention on Biodiversity in Kuala Lumpur this week.
To protect their knowledge, native peoples are forced to make it public to comply with patent laws. But this is absurd, says the report. Indigenous people often do not have the resources to fight expensive and protracted legal battles over patent rights. And the whole notion of patenting is an affront to many cultures where such knowledge is considered both secret and sacred.
There is a long tradition of collecting plants from other countries and making a profit from them, notably including Henry Alexander Wickham鈥檚 removal, some say theft, of rubber-tree seeds from Brazil in 1876. The seeds were used to establish rubber plantations in Malaysia. In 1980, a new era of collecting was ushered in by a US Supreme Court ruling allowing living organisms to be patented. Some call it bioprospecting, others consider it to be biopiracy.
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In a study of 762 randomly selected US patents related to medicinal plants, 49 per cent were based on traditional knowledge, noted the report by the UN University Institute of Advanced Studies, based in Tokyo. Yet there is no international system to protect the rights of the indigenous communities that provided the information in the first place, says the report鈥檚 author Brendan Tobin.
For instance, disputes are ongoing over who has the right to profit from native plants like basmati rice, which originated in India, and maca (Lepidium meyenii), a traditional Andean food and medicinal crop.
The report says patent laws must be reformed to protect the interests of indigenous peoples. Knowledge is often passed orally down through the generations, but this is rarely recognised by patent regulators. In one case, an Amazon shaman challenged a 1986 US patent on the use of a rainforest plant called ayahuasca (Banisteriopsis caapi). His testimony detailed prior knowledge of the plant鈥檚 healing properties, yet patent regulators refused to accept his evidence and upheld the original patent.
The institute鈥檚 report says such evidence should be allowed. Ways should also be found to avoid inappropriate patents, such as those granted on turmeric for wound healing and the neem tree for its medicinal and pesticidal effects, properties which have been well known in India for centuries. The patents were only overturned in recent years after lengthy and expensive legal battles.
The report recommends setting up confidential databases containing traditional knowledge. The Inuit, for example, have granted officials confidential access to their database as part of negotiations over land rights. 鈥淭his could be a very good way to prevent biopiracy鈥�, says Tobin.
Governments must also insist that companies show they have gained prior informed consent from indigenous communities before exploiting plants or crops for commercial gain.