Biopiracy and TEK

 UK House Of Parliament

As a concluding post I would like to write about biopiracy and the problems that many indigenous peoples face as corporations and government agencies seek to gain control over their traditional ecological knowledge. This link above is from the UK House of Parliament and is about the WTO's Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights."The TRIPs agreement is controversial because it recognises patents on plants that have been developed through biotechnology using plant varieties that themselves are the result of years of cross breeding by farmers. This implies that TRIPs, does not recognise communities' rights over their resources but those of individuals and companies claiming the patents as their own inventions." As we have talked about in lecture, companies that have patents on seed genetics often exert that power over farmers that had no intention of "breaking the law", such as the Enola bean case. In many countries around the world, indigenous peoples survive because of the crops that they grow and their ability to use the surrounding environment. It is the TEK that has been passed down through the generations that allows them to do that.

It is difficult for me to imagine a company being able to have the "exclusive rights" to a body part, or a way of life for a group of peoples. The ability to patent life and knowledge is unnerving. As one article notes, "In its 2009 report titled "Pirating African Heritage", the ACB documented seven new cases of suspected biopiracy, including in African countries such as Ethiopia and Madagascar. Affected resources even include viruses that have been identified in the Cameroonian Baka people's blood and which are now 'claimed as the exclusive intellectual property of corporations'" (Battling Biopiracy). Even if indigenous communities are compensated for the use of their knowledge, it is not guaranteed that this compensation will be even close to fair, such as the hoodia case. As one expert from the Institute for Sustainable Development in Ethiopia put it, "They are stealing the loaf and sharing the crumbs" (Dr. Tewolde Berhan Egziabher, Science in Africa).